Canadian Natural Resources Limited (NYSE:CNQ) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Canadian Natural Resources Limited (NYSE:CNQ) (TSE:CNQ) has been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twelve research firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, seven have issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $57.00.

CNQ has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on Canadian Natural Resources from $61.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 6th. Raymond James Financial raised Canadian Natural Resources from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. ATB Cormark Capital Markets lowered Canadian Natural Resources from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. Weiss Ratings raised Canadian Natural Resources from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Friday, March 27th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Canadian Natural Resources from $37.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 12th.

Canadian Natural Resources Trading Down 0.5%

Shares of Canadian Natural Resources stock opened at $44.52 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The firm has a market cap of $92.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.29 and a beta of 0.47. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $46.63 and a 200-day simple moving average of $38.73. Canadian Natural Resources has a fifty-two week low of $29.30 and a fifty-two week high of $51.34.

Canadian Natural Resources (NYSE:CNQ) (TSE:CNQ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.74 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $7.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.57 billion. Canadian Natural Resources had a return on equity of 17.80% and a net margin of 22.04%.During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.16 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Canadian Natural Resources will post 3.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Canadian Natural Resources Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 19th will be given a dividend of $0.625 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 18th. This represents a $2.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.6%. Canadian Natural Resources’s payout ratio is 54.63%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Canadian Natural Resources

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in Canadian Natural Resources by 31.5% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 146,331,336 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $4,956,204,000 after buying an additional 35,067,143 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Canadian Natural Resources by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 93,305,198 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $3,160,340,000 after buying an additional 818,809 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its position in Canadian Natural Resources by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 42,745,981 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $1,446,951,000 after buying an additional 1,342,954 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Canadian Natural Resources by 7.0% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 20,518,621 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $710,119,000 after buying an additional 1,347,844 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in Canadian Natural Resources by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 14,308,539 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $484,344,000 after buying an additional 260,746 shares during the period. 74.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Headlines Impacting Canadian Natural Resources

Here are the key news stories impacting Canadian Natural Resources this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Canadian Natural Resources beat Q1 expectations, with earnings and revenue coming in above analyst estimates; that kind of outperformance can support the stock as investors reward better-than-expected operating results. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Raymond James upgraded Canadian Natural Resources from “market perform” to “outperform,” while Zacks Research also raised its view to “strong-buy,” signaling improved analyst confidence in CNQ’s outlook. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: The company declared a quarterly dividend of C$0.625 per share, underscoring its cash-return profile and offering investors a 5.6% annualized yield, which can attract income-focused buyers. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: CNQ also released first-quarter results showing strong revenue but softer profitability metrics versus last year, including lower gross profit, operating profit, and EPS year over year, which may temper enthusiasm even after the earnings beat. Article Title

Canadian Natural Resources Company Profile

Canadian Natural Resources Limited (NYSE: CNQ) is a Calgary-based independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company. Established in the early 1970s and publicly listed in Canada and the United States, the company is principally engaged in the exploration, development, production, and marketing of crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids. Its asset base spans conventional and unconventional reservoirs and includes oil sands mining and in-situ thermal projects, midstream processing and upgrading capacity, and related field operations.

The company’s operations are concentrated in Western Canada, where it develops heavy crude, bitumen from oil sands and conventional light crude and natural gas resources.