Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. Reduces Holdings in Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX)

Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. trimmed its holdings in Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX - Free Report) by 32.9% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 190,769 shares of the oil and gas company's stock after selling 93,555 shares during the period. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc.'s holdings in Chevron were worth $31,914,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in Chevron during the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. 10Elms LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Chevron in the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. IFS Advisors LLC raised its stake in Chevron by 119.6% in the first quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 213 shares of the oil and gas company's stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 116 shares in the last quarter. Navigoe LLC bought a new stake in shares of Chevron during the 4th quarter worth $33,000. Finally, Cloud Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Chevron during the first quarter worth about $39,000. 72.42% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on CVX. Scotiabank reaffirmed a "sector perform" rating and set a $160.00 target price (up previously from $143.00) on shares of Chevron in a report on Friday, July 11th. DZ Bank cut Chevron from a "buy" rating to a "sell" rating and set a $130.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, May 6th. Hsbc Global Res downgraded shares of Chevron from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 13th. Mizuho lowered their price objective on Chevron from $188.00 to $186.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, May 13th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Chevron in a research report on Friday, July 18th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $162.13.

Chevron Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CVX traded up $2.70 during trading on Thursday, reaching $155.82. 15,690,214 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 11,637,524. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $144.87 and a 200-day simple moving average of $148.79. Chevron Corporation has a 52-week low of $132.04 and a 52-week high of $168.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $272.12 billion, a PE ratio of 17.81, a P/E/G ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Chevron (NYSE:CVX - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 2nd. The oil and gas company reported $2.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.15 by $0.03. Chevron had a net margin of 7.76% and a return on equity of 10.73%. The company had revenue of $47.61 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $49.05 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.93 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Chevron Corporation will post 10.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Chevron Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 19th were issued a $1.71 dividend. This represents a $6.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.39%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 19th. Chevron's dividend payout ratio is 78.17%.

Chevron Profile

Chevron Corporation, through its subsidiaries, engages in the integrated energy and chemicals operations in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Upstream and Downstream. The Upstream segment is involved in the exploration, development, production, and transportation of crude oil and natural gas; processing, liquefaction, transportation, and regasification of liquefied natural gas; transportation of crude oil through pipelines; transportation, storage, and marketing of natural gas; and carbon capture and storage, as well as a gas-to-liquids plant.