Imperial Oil Limited (NYSEAMERICAN:IMO) Receives Average Recommendation of "Reduce" from Brokerages

Key Points

• Imperial Oil Limited has received a consensus recommendation of "Reduce" from analysts, with three analysts rating it as a sell and five as hold.
• The stock's average 12-month price objective is $105.50, but recent downgrades have occurred from firms like Wolfe Research and Raymond James.
• Imperial Oil recently increased its quarterly dividend to $0.523, which represents a 2.44% yield and a payout ratio of 31.87%.

Shares of Imperial Oil Limited (NYSEAMERICAN:IMO - Get Free Report) TSE: IMO have earned an average recommendation of "Reduce" from the eight analysts that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation and five have assigned a hold recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $105.50.

IMO has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Raymond James Financial downgraded shares of Imperial Oil from a "moderate buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, July 3rd. Desjardins lowered shares of Imperial Oil from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 3rd. Wolfe Research lowered shares of Imperial Oil from an "outperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Finally, Tudor Pickering lowered shares of Imperial Oil from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th.

Institutional Trading of Imperial Oil

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of IMO. FMR LLC increased its holdings in Imperial Oil by 16.9% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 43,162,088 shares of the energy company's stock valued at $2,659,965,000 after buying an additional 6,228,461 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Imperial Oil by 395.8% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 4,546,520 shares of the energy company's stock worth $328,804,000 after purchasing an additional 3,629,568 shares during the period. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp increased its stake in shares of Imperial Oil by 273.2% in the 1st quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 658,949 shares of the energy company's stock valued at $47,607,000 after acquiring an additional 482,393 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased its stake in shares of Imperial Oil by 1,233.1% in the 1st quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 498,056 shares of the energy company's stock valued at $35,983,000 after acquiring an additional 460,696 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new stake in shares of Imperial Oil in the 4th quarter valued at $19,507,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 20.74% of the company's stock.

Imperial Oil Stock Down 0.2%

Shares of NYSEAMERICAN:IMO traded down $0.15 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $83.32. 581,456 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 362,654. The firm has a market cap of $42.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.45 and a beta of 0.92. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $79.47 and a 200 day simple moving average of $71.48. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Imperial Oil has a 1-year low of $58.76 and a 1-year high of $86.26.

Imperial Oil Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 4th were paid a dividend of $0.523 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 4th. This represents a $2.09 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.5%. This is a boost from Imperial Oil's previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Imperial Oil's dividend payout ratio is 31.87%.

Imperial Oil Company Profile

Imperial Oil Limited engages in exploration, production, and sale of crude oil and natural gas in Canada. The company operates through three segments: Upstream, Downstream and Chemical segments. The Upstream segment explores and produces crude oil, natural gas, synthetic crude oil, and bitumen. The Downstream segment transports and refines crude oil, blends refined products, and distributes and markets of refined products.