Brandes Investment Partners LP Sells 22,074 Shares of Eni S.p.A. (NYSE:E)

Brandes Investment Partners LP lowered its stake in Eni S.p.A. (NYSE:E) by 3.7% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 574,918 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock after selling 22,074 shares during the quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP’s holdings in ENI were worth $17,639,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Raymond James & Associates grew its holdings in shares of ENI by 1.0% during the second quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 500,182 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $15,401,000 after buying an additional 4,882 shares during the last quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. lifted its holdings in shares of ENI by 365.8% during the fourth quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. now owns 335,353 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $11,405,000 after purchasing an additional 263,362 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in shares of ENI by 7.3% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 333,308 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $10,263,000 after buying an additional 22,695 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP bought a new stake in ENI in the 2nd quarter worth about $6,875,000. Finally, Cambiar Investors LLC raised its position in ENI by 3.2% in the 2nd quarter. Cambiar Investors LLC now owns 197,960 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $6,095,000 after buying an additional 6,121 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 1.18% of the company’s stock.

ENI Price Performance

Shares of ENI stock opened at $30.61 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $51.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.19, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a quick ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $31.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $31.50. Eni S.p.A. has a 52 week low of $28.82 and a 52 week high of $34.30.

ENI (NYSE:E) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 26th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by ($0.14). The company had revenue of $24.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.74 billion. ENI had a net margin of 4.21% and a return on equity of 11.84%. As a group, analysts expect that Eni S.p.A. will post 4.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on E shares. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded shares of ENI from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. StockNews.com lowered shares of ENI from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Redburn Atlantic upgraded ENI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 25th. BNP Paribas upgraded ENI from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded ENI from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $39.60.

ENI Profile

Eni S.p.A. operates as an integrated energy company worldwide. The company engages in exploration, development, extracting, manufacturing, and marketing crude oil and natural gas, oil-based fuels, chemical products, and gas-fired power, as well as energy products from renewable sources. It operates through Exploration & Production; Global Gas & LNG Portfolio (GGP); Enilive, Refining and Chemicals; Plenitude & Power; and Corporate and Other Activities segments.