Sunbelt Securities Inc. Cuts Holdings in Valero Energy Co. (NYSE:VLO)

Sunbelt Securities Inc. cut its holdings in shares of Valero Energy Co. (NYSE:VLO) by 5.1% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 24,781 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after selling 1,344 shares during the period. Sunbelt Securities Inc.’s holdings in Valero Energy were worth $3,346,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of VLO. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Valero Energy by 0.5% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,287,269 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $1,389,090,000 after purchasing an additional 50,837 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its position in shares of Valero Energy by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 6,956,743 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $1,090,532,000 after purchasing an additional 192,397 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Valero Energy by 5.8% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,319,436 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $677,007,000 after buying an additional 237,347 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Valero Energy by 18.8% in the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 3,585,166 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $484,105,000 after buying an additional 567,059 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Valero Energy by 4,908.0% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,850,526 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $384,907,000 after buying an additional 2,793,607 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on Valero Energy from $149.00 to $131.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Valero Energy from $165.00 to $160.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Scotiabank reduced their target price on shares of Valero Energy from $173.00 to $141.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Valero Energy from $146.00 to $140.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Piper Sandler downgraded shares of Valero Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $169.00 to $123.00 in a report on Friday, September 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Valero Energy presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $155.50.

Valero Energy Trading Down 1.6 %

VLO opened at $132.34 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $41.90 billion, a PE ratio of 11.87, a P/E/G ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 1.40. Valero Energy Co. has a one year low of $120.21 and a one year high of $184.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a current ratio of 1.57. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $136.97 and its 200 day moving average price is $144.03.

Valero Energy (NYSE:VLO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The oil and gas company reported $1.14 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.98 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $32.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $31.04 billion. Valero Energy had a return on equity of 13.07% and a net margin of 2.74%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 14.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $7.49 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Valero Energy Co. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Valero Energy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 20th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th will be given a dividend of $1.07 per share. This represents a $4.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 20th. Valero Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 38.39%.

About Valero Energy

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.