Willis Johnson & Associates Inc. Raises Stock Holdings in ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP)

Willis Johnson & Associates Inc. boosted its position in ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) by 9.8% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 2,577 shares of the energy producer’s stock after buying an additional 230 shares during the quarter. Willis Johnson & Associates Inc.’s holdings in ConocoPhillips were worth $256,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in ConocoPhillips by 13.8% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 45,847,572 shares of the energy producer’s stock worth $4,546,706,000 after acquiring an additional 5,549,078 shares in the last quarter. Leavell Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of ConocoPhillips by 59.8% during the fourth quarter. Leavell Investment Management Inc. now owns 19,166 shares of the energy producer’s stock valued at $1,901,000 after purchasing an additional 7,174 shares during the last quarter. Heck Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of ConocoPhillips in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,767,000. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of ConocoPhillips by 11.7% in the 4th quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 519,371 shares of the energy producer’s stock worth $50,345,000 after buying an additional 54,196 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Baugh & Associates LLC increased its position in ConocoPhillips by 16.2% during the 4th quarter. Baugh & Associates LLC now owns 49,839 shares of the energy producer’s stock valued at $4,769,000 after buying an additional 6,956 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.36% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on COP shares. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on ConocoPhillips from $133.00 to $120.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Scotiabank cut their price objective on shares of ConocoPhillips from $115.00 to $95.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Raymond James cut shares of ConocoPhillips from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $157.00 to $124.00 in a report on Monday, February 10th. Mizuho dropped their target price on shares of ConocoPhillips from $127.00 to $125.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, May 13th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of ConocoPhillips from $116.00 to $113.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 14th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $122.74.

ConocoPhillips Stock Performance

COP stock opened at $90.33 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $114.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 1.29 and a quick ratio of 1.14. ConocoPhillips has a 1 year low of $79.88 and a 1 year high of $122.11. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $93.09 and its 200-day moving average price is $98.84.

ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The energy producer reported $2.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.05 by $0.04. ConocoPhillips had a return on equity of 17.26% and a net margin of 16.23%. The business had revenue of $16.18 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.74 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.05 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that ConocoPhillips will post 8.16 earnings per share for the current year.

ConocoPhillips Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.78 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 19th. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.45%. ConocoPhillips’s dividend payout ratio is currently 39.64%.

About ConocoPhillips

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.