Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 93,741 Shares of California Resources Corporation $CRC

Principal Financial Group Inc. trimmed its stake in California Resources Corporation (NYSE:CRC) by 17.7% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 434,531 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after selling 93,741 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 0.49% of California Resources worth $30,078,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of CRC. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of California Resources by 6.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,775,097 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $392,335,000 after purchasing an additional 529,814 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in California Resources by 17.8% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,181,806 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $186,968,000 after purchasing an additional 632,170 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its holdings in California Resources by 14.7% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,842,223 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $171,786,000 after purchasing an additional 491,751 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its position in California Resources by 200.7% in the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,344,493 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $104,822,000 after buying an additional 1,564,866 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sourcerock Group LLC increased its position in California Resources by 63.8% in the second quarter. Sourcerock Group LLC now owns 2,000,649 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $91,370,000 after buying an additional 779,280 shares during the last quarter. 97.79% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other California Resources news, EVP Jay A. Bys sold 11,907 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.00, for a total value of $642,978.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 159,424 shares in the company, valued at $8,608,896. This trade represents a 6.95% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 0.53% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Barclays upped their price target on California Resources from $72.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Weiss Ratings lowered California Resources from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 14th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on California Resources from $78.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of California Resources from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $70.00 target price (down from $78.00) on shares of California Resources in a research report on Monday, July 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $73.09.

California Resources Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of CRC stock opened at $52.80 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -10.15 and a beta of 0.92. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $56.83 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $57.99. California Resources Corporation has a 1 year low of $43.24 and a 1 year high of $71.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 0.55 and a quick ratio of 0.47.

California Resources (NYSE:CRC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.88 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.88. The firm had revenue of $119.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $947.50 million. California Resources had a positive return on equity of 10.12% and a negative net margin of 16.10%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 87.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.07 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that California Resources Corporation will post 4.02 earnings per share for the current year.

California Resources Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 18th. Investors of record on Friday, May 29th were issued a dividend of $0.405 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 29th. This represents a $1.62 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.1%. California Resources’s dividend payout ratio is -31.15%.

California Resources Company Profile

California Resources Corporation (NYSE: CRC) is an independent exploration and production company focused exclusively on developing oil and natural gas assets in California. Headquartered in Newport Beach, the company engages in hydraulic fracturing, well completions, reservoir management and enhanced recovery operations to produce crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids.

CRC’s operations are concentrated in three core regions: the Los Angeles Basin, the Ventura Basin and the San Joaquin Basin.