KBC Group NV Increases Stock Position in Exxon Mobil Co. (NYSE:XOM)

KBC Group NV boosted its position in Exxon Mobil Co. (NYSE:XOM) by 43.2% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 630,247 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after buying an additional 190,005 shares during the period. KBC Group NV’s holdings in Exxon Mobil were worth $73,877,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of XOM. WFA Asset Management Corp grew its position in Exxon Mobil by 18.2% in the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 2,684 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $312,000 after buying an additional 414 shares during the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in Exxon Mobil in the 1st quarter valued at $933,000. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its position in shares of Exxon Mobil by 5.6% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 925,591 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $107,591,000 after purchasing an additional 49,083 shares in the last quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC boosted its position in shares of Exxon Mobil by 23.4% during the 1st quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC now owns 2,918,680 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $339,267,000 after purchasing an additional 552,817 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wilkins Investment Counsel Inc. boosted its position in shares of Exxon Mobil by 176.3% during the 1st quarter. Wilkins Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 60,694 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $7,055,000 after purchasing an additional 38,729 shares in the last quarter. 61.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have commented on XOM. Wolfe Research boosted their target price on shares of Exxon Mobil from $137.00 to $138.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $120.00 target price on shares of Exxon Mobil in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Scotiabank upgraded shares of Exxon Mobil from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $129.00 to $145.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Exxon Mobil from $127.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Finally, BNP Paribas lowered shares of Exxon Mobil from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $105.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $129.95.

Exxon Mobil Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of XOM stock opened at $120.57 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $118.21 and a 200 day moving average price of $116.38. Exxon Mobil Co. has a twelve month low of $95.77 and a twelve month high of $126.34. The company has a market capitalization of $529.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.01, a PEG ratio of 5.09 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) last announced its earnings results on Friday, November 1st. The oil and gas company reported $1.92 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.91 by $0.01. Exxon Mobil had a net margin of 9.61% and a return on equity of 14.73%. The firm had revenue of $90.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $93.98 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.27 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Exxon Mobil Co. will post 7.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Exxon Mobil Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 14th will be paid a $0.99 dividend. This is an increase from Exxon Mobil’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.95. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 14th. This represents a $3.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.28%. Exxon Mobil’s payout ratio is presently 47.32%.

About Exxon Mobil

Exxon Mobil Corporation engages in the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas in the United States and internationally. It operates through Upstream, Energy Products, Chemical Products, and Specialty Products segments. The Upstream segment explores for and produces crude oil and natural gas.