Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Raises Stake in Valero Energy Co. (NYSE:VLO)

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund increased its stake in shares of Valero Energy Co. (NYSE:VLO) by 13.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 86,154 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after purchasing an additional 9,944 shares during the period. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in Valero Energy were worth $11,200,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in VLO. Marino Stram & Associates LLC increased its holdings in shares of Valero Energy by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Marino Stram & Associates LLC now owns 8,384 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $1,090,000 after purchasing an additional 77 shares in the last quarter. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY increased its holdings in shares of Valero Energy by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY now owns 16,630 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $2,357,000 after purchasing an additional 79 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew its holdings in shares of Valero Energy by 0.8% in the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 10,000 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $1,417,000 after acquiring an additional 81 shares during the period. Arkadios Wealth Advisors grew its holdings in shares of Valero Energy by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. Arkadios Wealth Advisors now owns 1,690 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $220,000 after acquiring an additional 81 shares during the period. Finally, Fulcrum Equity Management grew its holdings in shares of Valero Energy by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Fulcrum Equity Management now owns 8,806 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $1,145,000 after acquiring an additional 86 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.69% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on VLO. Barclays lifted their price objective on Valero Energy from $149.00 to $179.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. UBS Group boosted their price target on Valero Energy from $167.00 to $197.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Scotiabank boosted their price target on Valero Energy from $138.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Raymond James boosted their price objective on Valero Energy from $154.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Valero Energy from $177.00 to $178.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $173.63.

Valero Energy Trading Up 0.6 %

Valero Energy stock traded up $1.05 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $166.95. The company had a trading volume of 823,764 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,303,871. Valero Energy Co. has a 1-year low of $104.18 and a 1-year high of $184.79. The company has a current ratio of 1.56, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $159.00 and its 200-day simple moving average is $139.68. The stock has a market cap of $55.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.54.

Valero Energy (NYSE:VLO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The oil and gas company reported $3.55 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.95 by $0.60. The business had revenue of $35.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $34.76 billion. Valero Energy had a net margin of 6.10% and a return on equity of 31.62%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $8.45 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Valero Energy Co. will post 18.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Valero Energy Company Profile

Valero Energy Corporation manufactures, markets, and sells petroleum-based and low-carbon liquid transportation fuels and petrochemical products in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Latin America, Mexico, Peru, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Refining, Renewable Diesel, and Ethanol.