First Merchants Corp Trims Position in Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX)

First Merchants Corp lessened its position in shares of Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) by 6.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 45,773 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after selling 3,249 shares during the period. First Merchants Corp’s holdings in Chevron were worth $7,657,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of CVX. IMG Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Chevron during the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Life Planning Partners Inc acquired a new position in shares of Chevron in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Chevron during the fourth quarter worth approximately $29,000. 10Elms LLP bought a new stake in shares of Chevron in the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Finally, Fairway Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Chevron by 75.9% in the fourth quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC now owns 204 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 88 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.42% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on CVX. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on shares of Chevron from $173.00 to $162.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, May 13th. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $165.00 target price (up previously from $164.00) on shares of Chevron in a research report on Thursday. TD Cowen dropped their price target on Chevron from $155.00 to $150.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 5th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Chevron from $194.00 to $185.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 7th. Finally, Mizuho lowered their target price on shares of Chevron from $188.00 to $186.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, May 13th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $160.29.

Chevron Price Performance

Shares of Chevron stock opened at $144.40 on Friday. Chevron Corporation has a 52 week low of $132.04 and a 52 week high of $168.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The stock has a market cap of $252.18 billion, a PE ratio of 16.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.83. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $140.08 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $148.37.

Chevron (NYSE:CVX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 2nd. The oil and gas company reported $2.18 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.03. Chevron had a return on equity of 10.73% and a net margin of 7.76%. The business had revenue of $47.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $49.05 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.93 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Chevron Corporation will post 10.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Chevron Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 10th. Investors of record on Monday, May 19th were given a dividend of $1.71 per share. This represents a $6.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.74%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 19th. Chevron’s payout ratio is 78.17%.

Chevron Profile

Chevron Corporation, through its subsidiaries, engages in the integrated energy and chemicals operations in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Upstream and Downstream. The Upstream segment is involved in the exploration, development, production, and transportation of crude oil and natural gas; processing, liquefaction, transportation, and regasification of liquefied natural gas; transportation of crude oil through pipelines; transportation, storage, and marketing of natural gas; and carbon capture and storage, as well as a gas-to-liquids plant.