Retirement Investment Advisors Inc. Purchases New Position in ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP)

Retirement Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 6,383 shares of the energy producer’s stock, valued at approximately $730,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in COP. Cardinal Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in ConocoPhillips during the 4th quarter worth $13,468,000. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC increased its position in ConocoPhillips by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 9,697 shares of the energy producer’s stock valued at $1,234,000 after acquiring an additional 212 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. raised its stake in ConocoPhillips by 5.6% during the 1st quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 26,083 shares of the energy producer’s stock valued at $3,320,000 after acquiring an additional 1,390 shares during the last quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in ConocoPhillips during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $30,021,000. Finally, EP Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of ConocoPhillips by 19.1% in the 1st quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 28,601 shares of the energy producer’s stock valued at $3,640,000 after purchasing an additional 4,578 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.36% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

COP has been the subject of several analyst reports. Barclays upped their price target on ConocoPhillips from $158.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Argus upgraded shares of ConocoPhillips to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 7th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $140.00 price target on shares of ConocoPhillips in a research note on Friday, September 13th. StockNews.com lowered ConocoPhillips from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein cut their target price on ConocoPhillips from $147.00 to $132.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, ConocoPhillips currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $142.29.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other ConocoPhillips news, Director Timothy A. Leach sold 55,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $108.11, for a total transaction of $6,000,105.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 455,909 shares in the company, valued at approximately $49,288,321.99. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

ConocoPhillips Stock Up 1.7 %

COP opened at $110.51 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.33. The company has a market cap of $129.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.52, a PEG ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 1.22. ConocoPhillips has a one year low of $101.29 and a one year high of $135.18. The business’s fifty day moving average is $109.82 and its two-hundred day moving average is $116.55.

ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The energy producer reported $1.98 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.96 by $0.02. ConocoPhillips had a net margin of 18.18% and a return on equity of 20.81%. The business had revenue of $14.14 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.96 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.84 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that ConocoPhillips will post 8.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ConocoPhillips Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 12th were paid a dividend of $0.58 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 12th. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.10%. ConocoPhillips’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 26.27%.

ConocoPhillips Company Profile

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.