Chevron (NYSE:CVX) Sets New 12-Month High – Still a Buy?

Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX)’s share price reached a new 52-week high on Monday. The stock traded as high as $233.74 and last traded at $231.9320, with a volume of 8,134,951 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $233.21.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on CVX shares. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Chevron from $226.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, September 3rd. HSBC set a $90.00 price objective on shares of Chevron in a research report on Friday, September 25th. Dbs Bank raised shares of Chevron to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Mizuho set a $234.00 target price on Chevron in a report on Monday, October 12th. Finally, Barclays decreased their target price on Chevron from $216.00 to $208.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Chevron has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $213.96.

Chevron Stock Up 0.3%

The business has a fifty day moving average price of $210.61 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $194.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The company has a market cap of $461.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.34, a P/E/G ratio of 0.55 and a beta of 0.53.

Chevron (NYSE:CVX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 31st. The oil and gas company reported $6.06 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.55 by $0.51. Chevron had a net margin of 9.57% and a return on equity of 11.09%. The business had revenue of $67.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $62.72 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.77 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 57.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Chevron Corporation will post 18.20 earnings per share for the current year.

Chevron Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 10th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 19th were given a $1.78 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 19th. This represents a $7.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.0%. Chevron’s dividend payout ratio is presently 68.26%.

Insider Activity at Chevron

In other news, insider R. Pate sold 40,700 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.65, for a total transaction of $9,224,655.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 8,791 shares in the company, valued at $1,992,480.15. This represents a 82.24% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Michael K. Wirth sold 317,100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.46, for a total value of $63,565,866.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 26,308 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,273,701.68. This represents a 92.34% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 1,195,682 shares of company stock worth $235,619,780. Corporate insiders own 0.56% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CVX. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Chevron by 3.9% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 159,136,768 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $28,016,651,000 after purchasing an additional 5,998,852 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Chevron in the second quarter worth $25,663,729,000. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in shares of Chevron by 5.1% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 27,630,227 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $5,716,694,000 after buying an additional 1,334,976 shares during the last quarter. Amundi boosted its holdings in shares of Chevron by 3.0% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 12,185,436 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $2,521,166,000 after buying an additional 349,416 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in Chevron in the 2nd quarter worth $2,378,114,000. 72.42% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Chevron

Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) is an integrated energy company engaged in the exploration, development, production, transportation and sale of crude oil and natural gas. Its upstream operations include oil and gas exploration and production, while its downstream business includes refining crude oil, marketing fuels and manufacturing and distributing lubricants, petrochemicals and fuel additives.

The company also invests in lower-carbon businesses and technologies, including renewable fuels, carbon capture and storage, hydrogen and other opportunities intended to reduce emissions from its operations and energy products.