Pacer Advisors Inc. Trims Position in Cenovus Energy Inc. (NYSE:CVE)

Pacer Advisors Inc. reduced its position in Cenovus Energy Inc. (NYSE:CVE - Free Report) TSE: CVE by 98.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 12,688 shares of the oil and gas company's stock after selling 648,745 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc.'s holdings in Cenovus Energy were worth $211,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in Cenovus Energy by 68.8% during the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 19,871,360 shares of the oil and gas company's stock valued at $331,500,000 after acquiring an additional 8,098,474 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its stake in Cenovus Energy by 30.0% during the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 28,481,746 shares of the oil and gas company's stock valued at $474,791,000 after acquiring an additional 6,570,038 shares in the last quarter. Merewether Investment Management LP bought a new position in Cenovus Energy during the 4th quarter valued at $77,489,000. Neuberger Berman Group LLC lifted its stake in Cenovus Energy by 959.1% during the 3rd quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 2,784,238 shares of the oil and gas company's stock valued at $42,853,000 after acquiring an additional 2,521,360 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners lifted its stake in Cenovus Energy by 8.6% during the 3rd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 29,412,644 shares of the oil and gas company's stock valued at $676,838,000 after acquiring an additional 2,325,082 shares in the last quarter. 51.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Cenovus Energy from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. UBS Group raised Cenovus Energy from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $28.00 target price on shares of Cenovus Energy in a research report on Friday, January 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $26.67.

Cenovus Energy Stock Performance

Shares of Cenovus Energy stock traded up $0.27 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $21.38. 6,504,420 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 9,140,509. Cenovus Energy Inc. has a 12-month low of $14.69 and a 12-month high of $21.46. The stock has a market capitalization of $39.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.53 and a beta of 2.15. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $17.98 and a 200-day simple moving average of $17.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 1.56 and a quick ratio of 0.91.

Cenovus Energy (NYSE:CVE - Get Free Report) TSE: CVE last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The oil and gas company reported $0.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.25 by $0.04. Cenovus Energy had a return on equity of 14.85% and a net margin of 7.88%. The firm had revenue of $9.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.73 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.29 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Cenovus Energy Inc. will post 1.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cenovus Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a $0.1033 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $0.41 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.93%. This is a positive change from Cenovus Energy's previous quarterly dividend of $0.10. Cenovus Energy's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.95%.

About Cenovus Energy

Cenovus Energy Inc, together with its subsidiaries, develops, produces, refines, transports, and markets crude oil, natural gas, and refined petroleum products in Canada and internationally. The company operates through Oil Sands, Conventional, Offshore, Canadian Refining, and U.S. Refining segments.