Short Interest in Phillips 66 (NYSE:PSX) Drops By 16.5%

Phillips 66 (NYSE:PSX) saw a large decrease in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 6,510,000 shares, a decrease of 16.5% from the March 15th total of 7,800,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 3,820,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.7 days. Currently, 1.6% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Institutional Trading of Phillips 66

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in shares of Phillips 66 by 7.3% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 9,344,342 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $1,064,601,000 after purchasing an additional 639,323 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Phillips 66 by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,530,242 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $968,844,000 after acquiring an additional 82,758 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in shares of Phillips 66 by 283.5% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,026,649 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $686,618,000 after acquiring an additional 4,455,220 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in shares of Phillips 66 by 10.6% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 4,589,079 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $522,834,000 after buying an additional 440,107 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Phillips 66 during the 4th quarter worth about $497,648,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.93% of the company’s stock.

Phillips 66 Price Performance

Shares of NYSE PSX opened at $97.14 on Tuesday. Phillips 66 has a 52 week low of $91.01 and a 52 week high of $159.25. The company has a current ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $117.81 and its 200 day moving average price is $121.95. The stock has a market cap of $39.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.66, a PEG ratio of 4.84 and a beta of 1.17.

Phillips 66 (NYSE:PSX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 31st. The oil and gas company reported ($0.15) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.23 by ($1.38). Phillips 66 had a net margin of 1.46% and a return on equity of 8.58%. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.09 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Phillips 66 will post 6.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Phillips 66 Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 19th will be issued a $1.20 dividend. This is a positive change from Phillips 66’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.15. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.94%. Phillips 66’s payout ratio is 93.12%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. Barclays decreased their price target on Phillips 66 from $135.00 to $106.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Phillips 66 from $161.00 to $162.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Raymond James dropped their price target on shares of Phillips 66 from $150.00 to $140.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Phillips 66 from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $143.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Piper Sandler downgraded shares of Phillips 66 from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $142.00.

Phillips 66 Company Profile

Phillips 66 operates as an energy manufacturing and logistics company in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and internationally. It operates through four segments: Midstream, Chemicals, Refining, and Marketing and Specialties (M&S). The Midstream segment transports crude oil and other feedstocks; delivers refined petroleum products to market; provides terminaling and storage services for crude oil and refined petroleum products; transports, stores, fractionates, exports, and markets natural gas liquids; provides other fee-based processing services; and gathers, processes, transports, and markets natural gas.