Phillips 66 (NYSE:PSX) Short Interest Up 104.0% in April

Phillips 66 (NYSE:PSX - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest during the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 13,280,000 shares, an increase of 104.0% from the March 31st total of 6,510,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 3,790,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.5 days. Currently, 3.3% of the company's shares are short sold.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group cut shares of Phillips 66 from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $132.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Thursday, March 27th. TD Cowen dropped their target price on shares of Phillips 66 from $127.00 to $114.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Monday. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Phillips 66 from $144.00 to $140.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Scotiabank decreased their price target on shares of Phillips 66 from $136.00 to $133.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered shares of Phillips 66 from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Phillips 66 presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $137.07.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Phillips 66

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PSX. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in shares of Phillips 66 by 7.3% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 9,344,342 shares of the oil and gas company's stock worth $1,064,601,000 after purchasing an additional 639,323 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Phillips 66 by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,530,242 shares of the oil and gas company's stock worth $968,844,000 after buying an additional 82,758 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in Phillips 66 by 283.5% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,026,649 shares of the oil and gas company's stock worth $686,618,000 after buying an additional 4,455,220 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in shares of Phillips 66 by 10.6% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 4,589,079 shares of the oil and gas company's stock worth $522,834,000 after acquiring an additional 440,107 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Phillips 66 in the 4th quarter valued at about $497,648,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.93% of the company's stock.

Phillips 66 Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of NYSE:PSX traded up $1.83 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $105.80. 2,295,487 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,898,319. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The firm has a market cap of $43.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.42, a P/E/G ratio of 4.84 and a beta of 1.17. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $115.31 and its 200 day simple moving average is $120.83. Phillips 66 has a 1 year low of $91.01 and a 1 year high of $152.19.

Phillips 66 (NYSE:PSX - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 25th. The oil and gas company reported ($0.90) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.07 by ($0.97). Phillips 66 had a net margin of 1.46% and a return on equity of 8.58%. The business had revenue of $31.92 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $31.93 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.90 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Phillips 66 will post 6.8 EPS for the current year.

Phillips 66 Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 19th will be given a $1.20 dividend. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.54%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 19th. This is a boost from Phillips 66's previous quarterly dividend of $1.15. Phillips 66's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 97.17%.

Phillips 66 Company Profile

Phillips 66 operates as an energy manufacturing and logistics company in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and internationally. It operates through four segments: Midstream, Chemicals, Refining, and Marketing and Specialties (M&S). The Midstream segment transports crude oil and other feedstocks; delivers refined petroleum products to market; provides terminaling and storage services for crude oil and refined petroleum products; transports, stores, fractionates, exports, and markets natural gas liquids; provides other fee-based processing services; and gathers, processes, transports, and markets natural gas.

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