Investors Buy Large Volume of Call Options on Chevron (NYSE:CVX)

Chevron Co. (NYSE:CVX) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Stock investors bought 261,027 call options on the company. This is an increase of 464% compared to the average volume of 46,313 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CVX has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group increased their price objective on Chevron from $185.00 to $197.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Truist Financial lifted their price target on shares of Chevron from $156.00 to $166.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, May 10th. Barclays started coverage on shares of Chevron in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $203.00 price objective on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Chevron in a research report on Monday, April 1st. Finally, Mizuho increased their price target on Chevron from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $186.10.

Insider Transactions at Chevron

In other news, VP Alana K. Knowles sold 2,800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.00, for a total value of $462,000.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 276 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,540. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, VP Alana K. Knowles sold 2,800 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.00, for a total transaction of $462,000.00. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 276 shares in the company, valued at $45,540. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Enrique Hernandez, Jr. sold 2,549 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.24, for a total transaction of $421,196.76. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 27,725 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,581,279. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 15,796 shares of company stock valued at $2,575,361 in the last ninety days. 0.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Chevron by 0.3% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 161,924,375 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $27,303,688,000 after purchasing an additional 458,080 shares during the last quarter. Berkshire Hathaway Inc raised its position in Chevron by 14.4% during the fourth quarter. Berkshire Hathaway Inc now owns 126,093,326 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $18,808,081,000 after purchasing an additional 15,845,037 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in shares of Chevron by 7.0% in the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 34,166,899 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $5,761,223,000 after purchasing an additional 2,244,995 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Chevron by 8.2% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 26,235,473 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $3,886,821,000 after purchasing an additional 1,999,332 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its position in shares of Chevron by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 22,705,118 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $3,828,537,000 after purchasing an additional 569,850 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.42% of the company’s stock.

Chevron Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CVX traded down $0.07 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $161.35. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,557,826 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,279,539. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.23 and a quick ratio of 0.93. Chevron has a 52 week low of $139.62 and a 52 week high of $171.70. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $159.24 and a two-hundred day moving average of $151.88. The firm has a market capitalization of $298.01 billion, a PE ratio of 14.80, a P/E/G ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 1.11.

Chevron (NYSE:CVX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The oil and gas company reported $2.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.84 by $0.09. Chevron had a return on equity of 14.40% and a net margin of 10.21%. The business had revenue of $48.72 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $48.42 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.55 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Chevron will post 13.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Chevron Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be paid a $1.63 dividend. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. Chevron’s payout ratio is currently 59.98%.

About Chevron

Chevron Corporation, through its subsidiaries, engages in the integrated energy and chemicals operations in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Upstream and Downstream. The Upstream segment is involved in the exploration, development, production, and transportation of crude oil and natural gas; processing, liquefaction, transportation, and regasification of liquefied natural gas; transportation of crude oil through pipelines; transportation, storage, and marketing of natural gas; and carbon capture and storage, as well as a gas-to-liquids plant.