Imperial Oil Limited (NYSEAMERICAN:IMO) Short Interest Update

Key Points

• Short interest fell 20.1% to 14,887,581 shares as of March 31, equal to about 3.1% of shares sold short and a days-to-cover ratio of 17.1 (based on avg. volume 868,855).
• Analyst coverage is mixed with MarketBeat showing an average rating of Reduce and an average price target of $116; the breakdown is 1 Strong Buy, 3 Hold and 5 Sell, with notable calls including a Zacks upgrade to Strong Buy and an RBC downgrade to Underperform.
• Imperial increased its quarterly dividend to $0.87 (annualized $3.48) from $0.72, implying a ~2.8% yield and a payout ratio of about 38.7%.

Imperial Oil Limited (NYSEAMERICAN:IMO - Get Free Report) TSE: IMO was the recipient of a large decrease in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totaling 14,887,581 shares, a decrease of 20.1% from the March 15th total of 18,630,640 shares. Approximately 3.1% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 868,855 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 17.1 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on IMO. Zacks Research upgraded Imperial Oil from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 24th. TD Securities restated a "sell" rating on shares of Imperial Oil in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada downgraded Imperial Oil from a "sector perform" rating to an "underperform" rating and set a $116.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and five have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Reduce" and an average price target of $116.00.

Institutional Trading of Imperial Oil

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. MAI Capital Management lifted its position in shares of Imperial Oil by 2,776.1% during the third quarter. MAI Capital Management now owns 10,929 shares of the energy company's stock worth $992,000 after purchasing an additional 10,549 shares during the last quarter. Argent Trust Co bought a new stake in shares of Imperial Oil during the third quarter worth $2,308,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Imperial Oil by 13.9% during the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 84,287 shares of the energy company's stock worth $7,648,000 after purchasing an additional 10,299 shares during the last quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd lifted its position in shares of Imperial Oil by 88.4% during the third quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd now owns 36,253 shares of the energy company's stock worth $3,290,000 after purchasing an additional 17,011 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Caprock Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Imperial Oil during the third quarter worth $1,852,000. 20.74% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Imperial Oil Trading Up 0.8%

IMO traded up $0.94 during trading on Thursday, reaching $125.77. The company had a trading volume of 647,805 shares, compared to its average volume of 720,161. The stock has a market cap of $60.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.57 and a beta of 0.58. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $122.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $103.24. Imperial Oil has a 52 week low of $62.29 and a 52 week high of $133.37. The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

Imperial Oil Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 5th were given a dividend of $0.87 per share. This represents a $3.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.8%. This is a positive change from Imperial Oil's previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 5th. Imperial Oil's dividend payout ratio is 38.69%.

About Imperial Oil

Imperial Oil NYSEAMERICAN: IMO is a Canadian integrated energy company involved in the exploration, production, refining and marketing of petroleum and petrochemical products. Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Imperial has operated in Canada for well over a century and is one of the country's long-standing energy firms. The company is majority-owned by Exxon Mobil Corporation, which provides strategic and technical links to global upstream and downstream capabilities.

Imperial's operations span upstream activities—exploration and production of crude oil, natural gas and oil-sands resources—and downstream operations including refining, manufacturing of fuels and lubricants, petrochemical products, and retail distribution.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.