King Luther Capital Management Corp Has $1.68 Million Holdings in Hess Co. (NYSE:HES)

King Luther Capital Management Corp grew its holdings in Hess Co. (NYSE:HES) by 1.8% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 11,354 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after buying an additional 198 shares during the period. King Luther Capital Management Corp’s holdings in Hess were worth $1,675,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. purchased a new position in Hess during the first quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Rise Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Hess during the 1st quarter valued at $27,000. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Hess during the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. Riverview Trust Co acquired a new position in shares of Hess in the first quarter worth $36,000. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Hess by 47.6% in the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 273 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 88 shares during the last quarter. 88.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

HES has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group lowered their target price on Hess from $192.00 to $173.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Citigroup lowered their price target on Hess from $160.00 to $145.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Hess from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $166.00 to $172.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. BMO Capital Markets downgraded shares of Hess to an “overweight” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $175.00 to $160.00 in a research report on Monday, August 19th. Finally, Scotiabank dropped their price target on shares of Hess from $165.00 to $157.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 12th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Hess has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $171.31.

Hess Stock Up 0.7 %

Hess stock opened at $134.40 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $41.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.58 and a beta of 1.15. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $138.17 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $147.00. Hess Co. has a fifty-two week low of $123.79 and a fifty-two week high of $167.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 1.27 and a quick ratio of 1.14.

Hess (NYSE:HES) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The oil and gas producer reported $2.62 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.48 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $3.26 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.24 billion. Hess had a return on equity of 27.43% and a net margin of 21.22%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 40.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.65 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Hess Co. will post 11.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Hess Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 16th will be paid a $0.50 dividend. This is an increase from Hess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 16th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.49%. Hess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 30.63%.

About Hess

Hess Corporation, an exploration and production company, explores, develops, produces, purchases, transports, and sells crude oil, natural gas liquids (NGLs), and natural gas. The company operates in two segments, Exploration and Production, and Midstream. It conducts production operations primarily in the United States, Guyana, the Malaysia/Thailand Joint Development Area, and Malaysia; and exploration activities principally offshore Guyana, the U.S.