Prospector Partners LLC Has $8.78 Million Stock Position in Hess Co. (NYSE:HES)

Prospector Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Hess Co. (NYSE:HES) by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 59,542 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after purchasing an additional 657 shares during the quarter. Prospector Partners LLC’s holdings in Hess were worth $8,784,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Hess by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 32,126,526 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $4,903,793,000 after purchasing an additional 294,146 shares in the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA grew its holdings in shares of Hess by 4.4% during the 2nd quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 8,098,012 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $1,194,619,000 after purchasing an additional 340,490 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in Hess by 34.5% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,835,486 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $418,291,000 after buying an additional 726,631 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in Hess by 11.2% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,798,788 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $265,359,000 after buying an additional 181,459 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC boosted its stake in Hess by 76.4% in the second quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 1,532,132 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $227,273,000 after buying an additional 663,338 shares in the last quarter. 88.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Hess Stock Performance

Shares of HES stock opened at $134.40 on Friday. Hess Co. has a 12 month low of $123.79 and a 12 month high of $167.75. The company has a current ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.58 and a beta of 1.15. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $138.17 and its 200-day moving average price is $147.00.

Hess (NYSE:HES) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The oil and gas producer reported $2.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.48 by $0.14. Hess had a return on equity of 27.43% and a net margin of 21.22%. The company had revenue of $3.26 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.24 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.65 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 40.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Hess Co. will post 11.04 EPS for the current year.

Hess Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. This is a positive change from Hess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 16th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.49%. Hess’s payout ratio is presently 30.63%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently weighed in on HES. Susquehanna reduced their price objective on Hess from $151.00 to $149.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised Hess from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $166.00 to $172.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Mizuho reduced their price objective on Hess from $210.00 to $194.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on Hess from $173.00 to $167.00 in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price objective on Hess from $192.00 to $173.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Hess has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $171.31.

Hess Profile

Hess Corporation, an exploration and production company, explores, develops, produces, purchases, transports, and sells crude oil, natural gas liquids (NGLs), and natural gas. The company operates in two segments, Exploration and Production, and Midstream. It conducts production operations primarily in the United States, Guyana, the Malaysia/Thailand Joint Development Area, and Malaysia; and exploration activities principally offshore Guyana, the U.S.