Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Has $49.23 Million Position in Canadian Natural Resources Limited $CNQ

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio increased its stake in shares of Canadian Natural Resources Limited (NYSE:CNQ) (TSE:CNQ) by 183.4% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,011,022 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after acquiring an additional 654,266 shares during the quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio’s holdings in Canadian Natural Resources were worth $49,231,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Capital Research Global Investors grew its stake in shares of Canadian Natural Resources by 31.5% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 146,331,336 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $4,956,204,000 after buying an additional 35,067,143 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Canadian Natural Resources by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 93,305,198 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $3,160,340,000 after buying an additional 818,809 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Canadian Natural Resources by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 42,745,981 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $1,446,951,000 after buying an additional 1,342,954 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership bought a new position in Canadian Natural Resources in the first quarter worth approximately $1,411,619,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Canadian Natural Resources by 7.0% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 20,518,621 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $710,119,000 after acquiring an additional 1,347,844 shares in the last quarter. 74.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CNQ has been the subject of a number of research reports. Weiss Ratings cut Canadian Natural Resources from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Zacks Research raised Canadian Natural Resources from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Raymond James Financial raised shares of Canadian Natural Resources from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Desjardins upgraded shares of Canadian Natural Resources to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, Scotiabank upgraded shares of Canadian Natural Resources to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, June 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Canadian Natural Resources currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $57.00.

Canadian Natural Resources Stock Performance

Shares of CNQ opened at $47.07 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $97.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.05 and a beta of 0.47. Canadian Natural Resources Limited has a 52 week low of $29.30 and a 52 week high of $51.34. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $43.99 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $43.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a current ratio of 0.98.

Canadian Natural Resources (NYSE:CNQ) (TSE:CNQ) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $7.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 quarter last year, the company earned $1.16 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Canadian Natural Resources Limited will post 3.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Canadian Natural Resources Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 7th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 23rd were issued a dividend of $0.625 per share. This represents a $2.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 23rd. Canadian Natural Resources’s payout ratio is currently 54.03%.

Canadian Natural Resources Profile

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.