Hess Corporation, an exploration and production company, explores, develops, produces, purchases, transports, and sells crude oil, natural gas liquids (NGLs), and natural gas. The company operates in two segments, Exploration and Production, and Midstream. It conducts production operations primarily in the United States, Guyana, the Malaysia/Thailand Joint Development Area, and Malaysia; and exploration activities principally offshore Guyana, the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, and offshore Suriname and Canada. The company is also involved in gathering, compressing, and processing natural gas; fractionating NGLs; gathering, terminaling, loading, and transporting crude oil and NGL through rail car; and storing and terminaling propane, as well as providing water handling services primarily in the Bakken Shale plays in the Williston Basin area of North Dakota. As of December 31, 2021, it had total proved reserves of 1,309 million barrels of oil equivalent. The company was incorporated in 1920 and is headquartered in New York, New York.
Analyst Ratings Changes
Several equities research analysts have recently commented on HES shares. Raymond James boosted their price objective on Hess from $112.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, April 25th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on Hess from $141.00 to $135.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 19th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Hess from $161.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 19th. Citigroup downgraded Hess from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $126.00 to $100.00 in a report on Friday, June 24th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price objective on Hess from $153.00 to $149.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 15th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $133.92.
Hess Trading Up 4.2 %
Shares of Hess stock opened at $112.14 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $107.92 and a 200 day simple moving average of $105.47. Hess has a 12-month low of $61.93 and a 12-month high of $131.43. The company has a market capitalization of $34.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.81 and a beta of 1.61. The company has a current ratio of 1.69, a quick ratio of 1.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10.
Hess (NYSE:HES - Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 27th. The oil and gas producer reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.14 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $2.99 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.60 billion. Hess had a return on equity of 20.25% and a net margin of 15.53%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 87.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.24 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Hess will post 9.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Hess Dividend Announcement
The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 15th were paid a $0.375 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 14th. This represents a $1.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.34%. Hess's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 31.85%.
Insider Buying and Selling at Hess
In other Hess news, SVP Barbara J. Lowery-Yilmaz sold 36,260 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.29, for a total value of $4,651,795.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 95,624 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,267,602.96. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 9.93% of the company's stock.