Imperial Oil Limited (NYSEAMERICAN:IMO) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Strong Sell” from Brokerages

Imperial Oil Limited (NYSEAMERICAN:IMO) (TSE:IMO) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Strong Sell” by the nine ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation and four have given a hold recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $116.00.

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on IMO. Imperial Capital reaffirmed a “sell” rating on shares of Imperial Oil in a research note on Tuesday, June 23rd. TD Securities restated a “sell” rating on shares of Imperial Oil in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Desjardins raised shares of Imperial Oil to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Scotiabank reiterated a “sector perform” rating on shares of Imperial Oil in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered shares of Imperial Oil from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 13th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Imperial Oil

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Nykredit A S purchased a new stake in shares of Imperial Oil in the second quarter valued at $1,040,000. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio bought a new stake in Imperial Oil in the second quarter worth about $1,180,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in Imperial Oil in the second quarter worth about $24,051,000. CoreCap Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Imperial Oil by 20.5% during the second quarter. CoreCap Advisors LLC now owns 954 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $107,000 after buying an additional 162 shares during the period. Finally, Eastern Bank grew its stake in shares of Imperial Oil by 100.0% during the second quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 1,000 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $112,000 after buying an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. 20.74% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Imperial Oil Price Performance

Shares of Imperial Oil stock opened at $128.62 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $61.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.86 and a beta of 0.46. The company’s 50 day moving average is $126.74 and its 200 day moving average is $125.25. Imperial Oil has a twelve month low of $83.27 and a twelve month high of $139.44. The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Imperial Oil (NYSEAMERICAN:IMO) (TSE:IMO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 31st. The energy company reported $4.52 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.99 by $1.53. The business had revenue of $11.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.92 billion. Imperial Oil had a net margin of 8.03% and a return on equity of 22.28%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 43.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.86 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Imperial Oil will post 11.19 EPS for the current year.

Imperial Oil Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 1st. Investors of record on Friday, September 4th will be issued a $0.87 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. This represents a $3.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.7%. Imperial Oil’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 38.09%.

Imperial Oil Company Profile

Imperial Oil (NYSEAMERICAN: IMO) is a Canadian integrated energy company involved in the exploration, production, refining and marketing of petroleum and petrochemical products. Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Imperial has operated in Canada for well over a century and is one of the country’s long-standing energy firms. The company is majority-owned by Exxon Mobil Corporation, which provides strategic and technical links to global upstream and downstream capabilities.

Imperial’s operations span upstream activities—exploration and production of crude oil, natural gas and oil-sands resources—and downstream operations including refining, manufacturing of fuels and lubricants, petrochemical products, and retail distribution.