Canadian Natural Resources Limited (NYSE:CNQ) Stock Short Interest Declines 49.3%

Canadian Natural Resources Limited (NYSE:CNQ) (TSE:CNQ) saw a significant decrease in short interest during the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totaling 59,387,363 shares, a decrease of 49.3% from the September 30th total of 117,144,565 shares. Approximately 3.0% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 5,073,756 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 11.7 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Canadian Natural Resources

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in CNQ. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund raised its stake in Canadian Natural Resources by 10.0% in the 1st quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 37,457,500 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $1,826,578,000 after acquiring an additional 3,397,500 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership bought a new position in shares of Canadian Natural Resources in the first quarter worth $1,411,619,000. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Canadian Natural Resources by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 16,459,772 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $784,278,000 after acquiring an additional 223,444 shares in the last quarter. Amundi raised its stake in Canadian Natural Resources by 2.8% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 7,994,427 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $389,568,000 after purchasing an additional 217,437 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank grew its position in Canadian Natural Resources by 26.7% in the first quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 7,011,862 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $341,546,000 after acquiring an additional 1,475,500 shares in the last quarter. 74.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CNQ has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Zacks Research upgraded Canadian Natural Resources from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 5th. Weiss Ratings raised Canadian Natural Resources from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b+)” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 8th. Desjardins raised shares of Canadian Natural Resources to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Raymond James Financial cut shares of Canadian Natural Resources from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 14th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Canadian Natural Resources from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $57.00.

Canadian Natural Resources Price Performance

Shares of CNQ stock traded up $1.11 during trading on Friday, hitting $56.20. The company had a trading volume of 7,258,112 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,513,272. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $50.76 and its 200 day moving average price is $45.85. Canadian Natural Resources has a one year low of $30.13 and a one year high of $56.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a current ratio of 1.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $115.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.41 and a beta of 0.45.

Canadian Natural Resources (NYSE:CNQ) (TSE:CNQ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The oil and gas producer reported $1.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.43 by $0.15. Canadian Natural Resources had a net margin of 22.78% and a return on equity of 23.91%. The company had revenue of $14.74 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.40 billion. Equities analysts expect that Canadian Natural Resources will post 4.10 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Canadian Natural Resources Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 2nd. Investors of record on Friday, September 11th were given a dividend of C$0.62 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 11th. This represents a $2.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.4%. Canadian Natural Resources’s payout ratio is presently 44.44%.

Canadian Natural Resources Company Profile

Canadian Natural Resources Limited is an independent energy company engaged in the exploration, development, production, marketing and sale of crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids. Its portfolio includes conventional and unconventional petroleum assets, heavy crude oil operations, and oil sands projects that produce bitumen and synthetic crude oil.

The company’s principal operations are located in Western Canada, including oil sands and conventional assets in Alberta and natural gas properties in Alberta and British Columbia.