Northern Trust Corp Buys 529,513 Shares of Valero Energy Co. (NYSE:VLO)

Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Valero Energy Co. (NYSE:VLO) by 15.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 3,850,859 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after acquiring an additional 529,513 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp owned 1.22% of Valero Energy worth $472,077,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of VLO. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Valero Energy in the fourth quarter worth about $669,400,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Valero Energy by 16.1% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 34,725,700 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $4,257,024,000 after acquiring an additional 4,805,133 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Valero Energy during the 4th quarter worth approximately $132,469,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in shares of Valero Energy by 22.5% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,864,418 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $351,151,000 after acquiring an additional 525,255 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Prudential Financial Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Valero Energy by 159.3% in the fourth quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 850,161 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $104,221,000 after purchasing an additional 522,233 shares in the last quarter. 78.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VLO has been the subject of several research reports. Raymond James lowered their price objective on shares of Valero Energy from $165.00 to $155.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Scotiabank lowered their price target on shares of Valero Energy from $156.00 to $136.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Valero Energy from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $115.00 to $127.00 in a research note on Monday. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Valero Energy from $160.00 to $145.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, TD Cowen cut their target price on Valero Energy from $121.00 to $118.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Valero Energy currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $149.80.

Valero Energy Stock Performance

Valero Energy stock opened at $115.57 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $122.18 and a 200-day moving average price of $129.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a current ratio of 1.57. Valero Energy Co. has a fifty-two week low of $99.00 and a fifty-two week high of $167.78. The company has a market capitalization of $36.40 billion, a PE ratio of 13.63, a P/E/G ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 1.17.

Valero Energy (NYSE:VLO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The oil and gas company reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.16 by ($0.27). Valero Energy had a net margin of 2.13% and a return on equity of 9.58%. The company had revenue of $28.76 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $28.54 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.82 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Valero Energy Co. will post 7.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Valero Energy Profile

Valero Energy Corporation manufactures, markets, and sells petroleum-based and low-carbon liquid transportation fuels and petrochemical products in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Latin America, Mexico, Peru, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Refining, Renewable Diesel, and Ethanol.