Legal & General Group Plc Has $258.86 Million Holdings in Canadian Natural Resources Limited $CNQ

Legal & General Group Plc lessened its holdings in shares of Canadian Natural Resources Limited (NYSE:CNQ) (TSE:CNQ) by 9.8% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 7,632,656 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after selling 825,334 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in Canadian Natural Resources were worth $258,863,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of CNQ. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its holdings in shares of Canadian Natural Resources by 179.2% during the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 11,616,347 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $393,213,000 after acquiring an additional 7,455,286 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Canadian Natural Resources by 1.9% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 92,486,389 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $2,957,252,000 after acquiring an additional 1,744,290 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in shares of Canadian Natural Resources by 17.6% during the third quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 9,172,873 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $293,165,000 after acquiring an additional 1,371,122 shares during the period. Scotia Capital Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Canadian Natural Resources by 17.4% during the third quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 8,372,021 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $267,665,000 after acquiring an additional 1,242,197 shares during the period. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Canadian Natural Resources by 11.4% during the third quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 9,614,291 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $307,344,000 after acquiring an additional 983,892 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CNQ has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Zacks Research upgraded Canadian Natural Resources from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Canadian Natural Resources from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, January 31st. Raymond James Financial upgraded Canadian Natural Resources from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. ATB Cormark Capital Markets cut Canadian Natural Resources from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 5th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Canadian Natural Resources from $37.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Canadian Natural Resources has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $57.00.

Canadian Natural Resources Trading Down 3.6%

Shares of CNQ stock opened at $46.85 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The stock has a market cap of $97.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.99 and a beta of 0.47. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $47.21 and a 200 day simple moving average of $40.22. Canadian Natural Resources Limited has a 1 year low of $29.30 and a 1 year high of $51.34.

Canadian Natural Resources (NYSE:CNQ) (TSE:CNQ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.74 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $7.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.57 billion. Canadian Natural Resources had a return on equity of 17.49% and a net margin of 22.04%.During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.16 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Canadian Natural Resources Limited will post 4.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Canadian Natural Resources Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 7th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 23rd will be given a dividend of $0.625 per share. This represents a $2.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.3%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 23rd. Canadian Natural Resources’s payout ratio is currently 54.63%.

About Canadian Natural Resources

Canadian Natural Resources Limited (NYSE: CNQ) is a Calgary-based independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company. Established in the early 1970s and publicly listed in Canada and the United States, the company is principally engaged in the exploration, development, production, and marketing of crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids. Its asset base spans conventional and unconventional reservoirs and includes oil sands mining and in-situ thermal projects, midstream processing and upgrading capacity, and related field operations.

The company’s operations are concentrated in Western Canada, where it develops heavy crude, bitumen from oil sands and conventional light crude and natural gas resources.