Canadian Natural Resources Limited $CNQ Shares Sold by Capital World Investors

Key Points

• Capital World Investors trimmed its position in Canadian Natural Resources by 1.7% in the fourth quarter, but still held about 9.6% of the company, making CNQ its 24th largest holding.
• Institutional ownership remains high, with hedge funds and other institutions owning 74.03% of the stock; several firms, including Capital Research Global Investors and Massachusetts Financial Services, increased their stakes.
• CNQ reported solid quarterly results and a dividend, beating earnings and revenue estimates for the quarter and declaring a $0.625 quarterly dividend, equal to a 5.5% annualized yield.

Capital World Investors decreased its stake in shares of Canadian Natural Resources Limited (NYSE:CNQ - Free Report) TSE: CNQ by 1.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 199,820,601 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock after selling 3,513,338 shares during the period. Canadian Natural Resources accounts for 0.9% of Capital World Investors' portfolio, making the stock its 24th largest position. Capital World Investors owned about 9.60% of Canadian Natural Resources worth $6,767,557,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in shares of Canadian Natural Resources by 31.5% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 146,331,336 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock valued at $4,956,204,000 after acquiring an additional 35,067,143 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its stake in shares of Canadian Natural Resources by 179.2% in the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 11,616,347 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock valued at $393,213,000 after acquiring an additional 7,455,286 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Canadian Natural Resources by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 92,486,389 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock valued at $2,957,252,000 after acquiring an additional 1,744,290 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in shares of Canadian Natural Resources by 17.6% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 9,172,873 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock valued at $293,165,000 after acquiring an additional 1,371,122 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Canadian Natural Resources by 7.0% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 20,518,621 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock valued at $710,119,000 after acquiring an additional 1,347,844 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.03% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CNQ has been the topic of a number of research reports. ATB Cormark Capital Markets downgraded shares of Canadian Natural Resources from a "strong-buy" rating to a "moderate buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their target price on shares of Canadian Natural Resources from $61.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, March 6th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Canadian Natural Resources from a "buy (b)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a research note on Monday, May 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Canadian Natural Resources from $37.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 12th. Finally, Raymond James Financial raised shares of Canadian Natural Resources from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $57.00.

Canadian Natural Resources Price Performance

CNQ opened at $45.74 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $46.78 and a 200 day simple moving average of $40.96. The firm has a market cap of $95.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.65 and a beta of 0.45. Canadian Natural Resources Limited has a twelve month low of $29.30 and a twelve month high of $51.34. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37.

Canadian Natural Resources (NYSE:CNQ - Get Free Report) TSE: CNQ last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $7.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.57 billion. Canadian Natural Resources had a net margin of 22.04% and a return on equity of 17.49%. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.16 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Canadian Natural Resources Limited will post 4.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Canadian Natural Resources Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 7th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 23rd will be issued a dividend of $0.625 per share. This represents a $2.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 23rd. Canadian Natural Resources's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 54.63%.

About Canadian Natural Resources

Canadian Natural Resources Limited NYSE: CNQ is a Calgary-based independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company. Established in the early 1970s and publicly listed in Canada and the United States, the company is principally engaged in the exploration, development, production, and marketing of crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids. Its asset base spans conventional and unconventional reservoirs and includes oil sands mining and in-situ thermal projects, midstream processing and upgrading capacity, and related field operations.

The company's operations are concentrated in Western Canada, where it develops heavy crude, bitumen from oil sands and conventional light crude and natural gas resources.

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