VSM Wealth Advisory LLC Makes New $97,000 Investment in ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP)

VSM Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new stake in ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 982 shares of the energy producer’s stock, valued at approximately $97,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp increased its position in ConocoPhillips by 19.0% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 66,928,793 shares of the energy producer’s stock worth $7,046,263,000 after purchasing an additional 10,663,093 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in shares of ConocoPhillips by 20.2% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 31,161,897 shares of the energy producer’s stock valued at $3,280,725,000 after buying an additional 5,240,016 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in ConocoPhillips by 59.7% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 12,456,011 shares of the energy producer’s stock worth $1,311,369,000 after acquiring an additional 4,656,040 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its position in ConocoPhillips by 5,422.3% in the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 4,587,729 shares of the energy producer’s stock worth $482,996,000 after acquiring an additional 4,504,653 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in ConocoPhillips by 401.5% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 4,423,611 shares of the energy producer’s stock worth $438,690,000 after acquiring an additional 3,541,504 shares in the last quarter. 82.36% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on COP shares. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of ConocoPhillips from $140.00 to $137.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. TD Cowen assumed coverage on shares of ConocoPhillips in a research report on Friday, January 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $125.00 target price on the stock. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of ConocoPhillips in a research report on Monday, December 16th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $128.00 price target for the company. Barclays lowered their price target on ConocoPhillips from $137.00 to $135.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Raymond James cut ConocoPhillips from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $157.00 to $124.00 in a report on Monday, February 10th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $133.05.

ConocoPhillips Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of COP opened at $101.33 on Thursday. ConocoPhillips has a fifty-two week low of $86.81 and a fifty-two week high of $135.18. The company has a market capitalization of $128.93 billion, a PE ratio of 13.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 1.12. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $99.19 and a two-hundred day moving average of $103.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.29.

ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The energy producer reported $1.98 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.20. ConocoPhillips had a return on equity of 17.26% and a net margin of 16.23%. As a group, analysts forecast that ConocoPhillips will post 8.16 EPS for the current year.

ConocoPhillips Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 17th were issued a dividend of $0.78 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $3.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.08%. ConocoPhillips’s payout ratio is currently 40.05%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Arjun N. Murti purchased 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 20th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $95.87 per share, with a total value of $239,675.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 21,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,061,205. This trade represents a 13.16 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

ConocoPhillips Profile

ConocoPhillips explores for, produces, transports, and markets crude oil, bitumen, natural gas, liquefied natural gas (LNG), and natural gas liquids in the United States, Canada, China, Libya, Malaysia, Norway, the United Kingdom, and internationally. The company's portfolio includes unconventional plays in North America; conventional assets in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia; global LNG developments; oil sands assets in Canada; and an inventory of global exploration prospects.