Clark Capital Management Group Inc. Has $31.80 Million Stock Position in Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras $PBR

Key Points

• Clark Capital Management Group Inc. increased its holdings in Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras by 14.9% in Q1, owning a total of 2,217,527 shares valued at approximately $31.8 million.
• Analysts have boosted their ratings for Petrobras, with Zacks Research upgrading it to a strong-buy and Jefferies setting a new price target of $15.30.
• Petrobras has declared a special dividend of $0.0739 per share, which will be paid on December 30th to shareholders of record as of August 25th.

Clark Capital Management Group Inc. lifted its position in Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras (NYSE:PBR - Free Report) by 14.9% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,217,527 shares of the oil and gas exploration company's stock after acquiring an additional 287,837 shares during the period. Clark Capital Management Group Inc.'s holdings in Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras were worth $31,799,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. GQG Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras by 8.0% in the first quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 256,098,882 shares of the oil and gas exploration company's stock worth $3,672,458,000 after buying an additional 18,862,848 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras by 16.4% in the 4th quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 21,755,839 shares of the oil and gas exploration company's stock valued at $279,779,000 after purchasing an additional 3,072,312 shares in the last quarter. ARGA Investment Management LP boosted its stake in shares of Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. ARGA Investment Management LP now owns 11,036,110 shares of the oil and gas exploration company's stock valued at $158,258,000 after purchasing an additional 38,312 shares in the last quarter. Carrhae Capital LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras in the 1st quarter valued at $64,765,000. Finally, Artemis Investment Management LLP boosted its stake in shares of Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras by 30.2% in the 1st quarter. Artemis Investment Management LLP now owns 3,908,771 shares of the oil and gas exploration company's stock valued at $56,052,000 after purchasing an additional 905,800 shares in the last quarter.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PBR has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras from $15.80 to $14.40 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $15.30 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 20th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 14th. Finally, Bank of America cut Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, June 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $16.14.

Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras Stock Up 3.0%

NYSE PBR traded up $0.37 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $12.70. 11,798,092 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,998,564. The company's 50-day moving average is $12.48 and its two-hundred day moving average is $12.46. Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras has a one year low of $11.03 and a one year high of $15.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a current ratio of 0.72. The company has a market capitalization of $81.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.92 and a beta of 0.91.

Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras (NYSE:PBR - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Friday, August 8th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.70 by ($0.06). Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras had a return on equity of 34.11% and a net margin of 15.99%.The business had revenue of $21.04 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $20.78 billion. On average, analysts forecast that Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras will post 2.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a special dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 30th. Investors of record on Monday, August 25th will be paid a dividend of $0.0739 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 25th. Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras's dividend payout ratio is presently 47.66%.

Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras Company Profile

Petróleo Brasileiro SA - Petrobras explores, produces, and sells oil and gas in Brazil and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Exploration and Production; Refining, Transportation and Marketing; and Gas and Power. The Exploration and Production segment explores, develops, and produces crude oil, natural gas liquids, and natural gas primarily for supplies to the domestic refineries.