Graham Capital Management L.P. Sells 42,537 Shares of Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras $PBR

Key Points

• Graham Capital Management L.P. reduced its stake in Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras by 53.2%, selling 42,537 shares and leaving it with 37,442 shares valued at approximately $537,000.
• Petrobras recently announced a special dividend of $0.0739 per share, to be paid on December 30th, with the ex-dividend date on August 25th.
• Analysts have mixed views on Petrobras, with Bank of America downgrading the stock to "neutral," while others like Zacks Research upgraded it to "strong-buy," with a consensus rating of "buy."

Graham Capital Management L.P. reduced its stake in Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras (NYSE:PBR - Free Report) by 53.2% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 37,442 shares of the oil and gas exploration company's stock after selling 42,537 shares during the period. Graham Capital Management L.P.'s holdings in Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras were worth $537,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in PBR. GQG Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras by 8.0% during the first quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 256,098,882 shares of the oil and gas exploration company's stock valued at $3,672,458,000 after purchasing an additional 18,862,848 shares during the period. Carrhae Capital LLP bought a new stake in Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras in the 1st quarter valued at about $64,765,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its position in 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 buying an additional 3,072,312 shares in the last quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund bought a new stake in Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras in the 1st quarter valued at about $29,984,000. Finally, Artemis Investment Management LLP increased its position in 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 buying an additional 905,800 shares in the last quarter.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on PBR. Wall Street Zen raised Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 14th. Jefferies Financial Group raised Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $15.30 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. UBS Group decreased their target price on Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras from $15.80 to $14.40 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 22nd. Zacks Research raised shares of Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 20th. Finally, Bank of America downgraded shares of Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, June 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $16.14.

Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras Stock Up 3.4%

Shares of PBR stock traded up $0.42 on Wednesday, hitting $12.75. The stock had a trading volume of 22,636,098 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,070,146. The business has a 50 day moving average of $12.48 and a 200 day moving average of $12.46. The stock has a market cap of $82.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.72 and a quick ratio of 0.47. Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras has a 12-month low of $11.03 and a 12-month high of $15.34.

Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras (NYSE:PBR - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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). The business had revenue of $21.04 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $20.78 billion. Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras had a net margin of 15.99% and a return on equity of 34.11%. As a group, analysts expect that Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras will post 2.14 EPS for the current year.

Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras Dividend Announcement

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

About Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras

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.