Schwartz Investment Counsel Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in ConocoPhillips $COP

Key Points

• Schwartz Investment Counsel Inc. increased its stake in ConocoPhillips by 16.0% during Q2, owning a total of 56,600 shares valued at $5,079,000.
• Other institutional investors also augmented their holdings, with Aberdeen Group plc raising its position by 49.3% and Vanguard Personalized Indexing increasing by 17.4% in the same period.
• ConocoPhillips reported a quarterly earnings per share (EPS) of $1.42, exceeding estimates, and declared a dividend of $0.78, resulting in an annual yield of 3.6%.

Schwartz Investment Counsel Inc. grew its holdings in ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP - Free Report) by 16.0% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 56,600 shares of the energy producer's stock after purchasing an additional 7,800 shares during the quarter. Schwartz Investment Counsel Inc.'s holdings in ConocoPhillips were worth $5,079,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Aberdeen Group plc raised its position in shares of ConocoPhillips by 49.3% during the 1st quarter. Aberdeen Group plc now owns 801,426 shares of the energy producer's stock valued at $83,969,000 after buying an additional 264,726 shares during the period. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC raised its position in shares of ConocoPhillips by 17.4% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 154,360 shares of the energy producer's stock valued at $13,927,000 after buying an additional 22,827 shares during the period. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC raised its position in shares of ConocoPhillips by 17.7% during the 1st quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 37,361 shares of the energy producer's stock valued at $3,924,000 after buying an additional 5,627 shares during the period. Lynx Investment Advisory raised its position in shares of ConocoPhillips by 316.6% during the 1st quarter. Lynx Investment Advisory now owns 10,769 shares of the energy producer's stock valued at $1,131,000 after buying an additional 8,184 shares during the period. Finally, Legacy Wealth Management LLC MS raised its position in shares of ConocoPhillips by 15.0% during the 2nd quarter. Legacy Wealth Management LLC MS now owns 32,214 shares of the energy producer's stock valued at $2,891,000 after buying an additional 4,208 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.36% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on COP. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of ConocoPhillips from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, October 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of ConocoPhillips from $114.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, October 9th. Melius Research initiated coverage on shares of ConocoPhillips in a report on Wednesday, August 20th. They issued a "hold" rating and a $117.00 target price for the company. Capital One Financial lifted their target price on shares of ConocoPhillips from $111.00 to $112.00 in a report on Friday, October 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company initiated coverage on shares of ConocoPhillips in a report on Friday. They issued an "equal weight" rating and a $100.00 target price for the company. Eighteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $115.63.

ConocoPhillips Stock Performance

NYSE:COP opened at $87.01 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $93.91 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $91.92. The company has a market cap of $108.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. ConocoPhillips has a 52 week low of $79.88 and a 52 week high of $115.38.

ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The energy producer reported $1.42 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.36 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $14.94 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.39 billion. ConocoPhillips had a net margin of 15.26% and a return on equity of 14.60%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.98 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that ConocoPhillips will post 8.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ConocoPhillips Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 18th were paid a $0.78 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 18th. This represents a $3.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.6%. ConocoPhillips's payout ratio is 41.88%.

ConocoPhillips Company Profile

ConocoPhillips explores for, produces, transports, and markets crude oil, bitumen, natural gas, liquefied natural gas (LNG), and natural gas liquids in the United States, Canada, China, Libya, Malaysia, Norway, the United Kingdom, and internationally. The company's portfolio includes unconventional plays in North America; conventional assets in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia; global LNG developments; oil sands assets in Canada; and an inventory of global exploration prospects.

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