CVR Energy (NYSE:CVI) Reaches New 1-Year High Following Analyst Upgrade

CVR Energy Inc. (NYSE:CVI) reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Thursday after Wall Street Zen upgraded the stock from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating. The company traded as high as $58.92 and last traded at $57.3380, with a volume of 623,318 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $57.42.

Several other brokerages have also commented on CVI. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on CVR Energy from $36.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Friday. UBS Group upped their target price on CVR Energy from $35.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 2nd. Mizuho increased their price target on CVR Energy from $29.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Zacks Research upgraded CVR Energy from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of CVR Energy from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Thursday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, CVR Energy presently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $45.75.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On CVR Energy

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of CVR Energy by 197.2% in the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,153 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $59,000 after acquiring an additional 765 shares during the period. Congress Asset Management Co. grew its position in shares of CVR Energy by 20.7% during the 3rd quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. now owns 110,723 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $5,646,000 after acquiring an additional 18,966 shares during the period. CX Institutional increased its stake in shares of CVR Energy by 5,362.5% in the 3rd quarter. CX Institutional now owns 1,311 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $67,000 after purchasing an additional 1,287 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of CVR Energy by 11.0% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,153,498 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $59,315,000 after buying an additional 213,829 shares in the last quarter. Finally, WINTON GROUP Ltd grew its position in shares of CVR Energy by 357.8% in the second quarter. WINTON GROUP Ltd now owns 164,204 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $4,522,000 after purchasing an additional 128,339 shares during the period. 98.88% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

CVR Energy Stock Performance

The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $44.79 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $36.51. The firm has a market cap of $5.83 billion, a PE ratio of 85.30 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.38.

CVR Energy (NYSE:CVI) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The oil and gas company reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $2.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.22 billion. CVR Energy had a negative return on equity of 15.21% and a net margin of 0.81%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 55.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned ($0.23) EPS. Research analysts forecast that CVR Energy Inc. will post 1.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CVR Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 10th were paid a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 10th. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. CVR Energy’s payout ratio is 58.82%.

CVR Energy Company Profile

CVR Energy, Inc is a diversified energy company engaged primarily in petroleum refining and nitrogen fertilizer production. Headquartered in Sugar Land, Texas, the company operates through subsidiaries that serve customers in the United States, with activities concentrated in the Midcontinent region.

Through its refining operations, CVR Energy processes crude oil into transportation fuels and other refined products, including gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel and asphalt. Its refineries are located in Coffeyville, Kansas, and Wynnewood, Oklahoma, and are supported by related logistics, storage and transportation assets.

CVR Energy also owns and operates nitrogen fertilizer facilities through CVR Partners, LP.