Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Acquires Shares of 10,508 Imperial Oil Limited $IMO

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio acquired a new stake in shares of Imperial Oil Limited (NYSEAMERICAN:IMO) (TSE:IMO) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund acquired 10,508 shares of the energy company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,180,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in IMO. UBS Group AG grew its holdings in Imperial Oil by 566.9% during the 3rd quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 1,406,624 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $127,637,000 after purchasing an additional 1,195,698 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in Imperial Oil by 30.4% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 3,840,645 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $348,500,000 after buying an additional 895,117 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership purchased a new position in Imperial Oil in the 1st quarter valued at about $93,097,000. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in Imperial Oil by 47.9% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,867,363 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $161,172,000 after buying an additional 604,447 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Imperial Oil during the second quarter valued at about $24,051,000. 20.74% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

IMO has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. TD Securities reaffirmed a “sell” rating on shares of Imperial Oil in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Zacks Research downgraded Imperial Oil from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 13th. Scotiabank restated a “sector perform” rating on shares of Imperial Oil in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Desjardins upgraded Imperial Oil to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, Imperial Capital reaffirmed a “sell” rating on shares of Imperial Oil in a research report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and five have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Imperial Oil currently has an average rating of “Strong Sell” and an average target price of $116.00.

Imperial Oil Stock Performance

Shares of IMO stock opened at $131.38 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $63.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.31 and a beta of 0.46. Imperial Oil Limited has a one year low of $83.27 and a one year high of $139.44. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $127.13 and its 200-day simple moving average is $125.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.38.

Imperial Oil (NYSEAMERICAN:IMO) (TSE:IMO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 31st. The energy company reported $4.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.99 by $1.53. Imperial Oil had a return on equity of 22.28% and a net margin of 8.03%.The firm had revenue of $11.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.92 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.86 earnings per share. Imperial Oil’s revenue for the quarter was up 43.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Imperial Oil Limited will post 11.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Imperial Oil Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 4th will be issued a $0.87 dividend. This represents a $3.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. Imperial Oil’s payout ratio is currently 38.09%.

About Imperial Oil

Imperial Oil Limited is an integrated Canadian energy company engaged in the exploration, production, transportation, refining and marketing of crude oil and natural gas. Its upstream operations include oil sands mining and in situ production, conventional oil and natural gas assets, and an interest in the Syncrude oil sands project.

The company’s downstream business operates refineries and produces gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, lubricants, asphalt and other petroleum products. Imperial markets fuels and related products across Canada primarily under the Esso and Mobil brands, serving retail, commercial, industrial and aviation customers.