Brokerages Set Imperial Oil Limited (NYSEAMERICAN:IMO) Target Price at $116.00

Imperial Oil Limited (NYSEAMERICAN:IMO) (TSE:IMO) has received a consensus recommendation of “Reduce” from the nine ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have given a hold recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $116.00.

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on IMO shares. TD Securities restated a “sell” rating on shares of Imperial Oil in a research note on Wednesday, May 13th. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered Imperial Oil from a “sector perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $116.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Imperial Oil from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 24th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Imperial Oil

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of IMO. UBS Group AG raised its stake in shares of Imperial Oil by 566.9% during the 3rd quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 1,406,624 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $127,637,000 after buying an additional 1,195,698 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE increased its position in shares of Imperial Oil by 30.4% during the third quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 3,840,645 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $348,500,000 after purchasing an additional 895,117 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership purchased a new stake in shares of Imperial Oil during the first quarter worth approximately $93,097,000. Morgan Stanley increased its position in shares of Imperial Oil by 47.9% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,867,363 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $161,172,000 after purchasing an additional 604,447 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its position in shares of Imperial Oil by 56.0% during the third quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 1,194,462 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $108,282,000 after purchasing an additional 428,844 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 20.74% of the company’s stock.

Imperial Oil Price Performance

Shares of IMO stock opened at $120.80 on Tuesday. Imperial Oil has a fifty-two week low of $70.99 and a fifty-two week high of $139.44. The firm has a market capitalization of $58.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.49 and a beta of 0.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.23. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $128.87 and its 200-day simple moving average is $111.87.

Imperial Oil Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, June 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.87 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 4th. This represents a $3.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.9%. Imperial Oil’s payout ratio is 38.69%.

About Imperial Oil

Imperial Oil (NYSEAMERICAN: IMO) is a Canadian integrated energy company involved in the exploration, production, refining and marketing of petroleum and petrochemical products. Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Imperial has operated in Canada for well over a century and is one of the country’s long-standing energy firms. The company is majority-owned by Exxon Mobil Corporation, which provides strategic and technical links to global upstream and downstream capabilities.

Imperial’s operations span upstream activities—exploration and production of crude oil, natural gas and oil-sands resources—and downstream operations including refining, manufacturing of fuels and lubricants, petrochemical products, and retail distribution.