LS Investment Advisors LLC Sells 2,100 Shares of ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP)

LS Investment Advisors LLC reduced its stake in ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) by 42.0% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,905 shares of the energy producer’s stock after selling 2,100 shares during the period. LS Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in ConocoPhillips were worth $305,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in ConocoPhillips by 11.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 121,826,062 shares of the energy producer’s stock worth $12,081,491,000 after purchasing an additional 12,751,120 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of ConocoPhillips by 13.8% in the 4th 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 buying an additional 5,549,078 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of ConocoPhillips by 37.1% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 15,570,246 shares of the energy producer’s stock worth $1,544,101,000 after buying an additional 4,211,939 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of ConocoPhillips by 13.7% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 28,131,288 shares of the energy producer’s stock worth $2,792,521,000 after buying an additional 3,397,360 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of ConocoPhillips by 27.6% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 13,757,835 shares of the energy producer’s stock valued at $1,364,364,000 after buying an additional 2,971,661 shares during the period. 82.36% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

COP has been the subject of a number of research reports. Mizuho lowered their price objective on shares of ConocoPhillips from $127.00 to $125.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, May 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of ConocoPhillips from $127.00 to $115.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of ConocoPhillips from $116.00 to $111.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of ConocoPhillips from $135.00 to $120.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Scotiabank dropped their target price on ConocoPhillips from $115.00 to $95.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $121.63.

ConocoPhillips Price Performance

Shares of NYSE COP opened at $86.00 on Thursday. ConocoPhillips has a fifty-two week low of $79.88 and a fifty-two week high of $118.40. The company has a market cap of $108.72 billion, a PE ratio of 11.04, a P/E/G ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 0.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.29. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $89.50 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $96.91.

ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 8th. The energy producer reported $2.09 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.05 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $16.18 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.74 billion. ConocoPhillips had a net margin of 16.23% and a return on equity of 17.26%. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.05 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that ConocoPhillips will post 8.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ConocoPhillips Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 19th were issued a $0.78 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 19th. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.63%. 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.