Legal & General Group Plc Purchases 5,235,607 Shares of Exxon Mobil Co. (NYSE:XOM)

Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in shares of Exxon Mobil Co. (NYSE:XOM) by 19.3% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 32,308,002 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,235,607 shares during the quarter. Exxon Mobil makes up approximately 0.8% of Legal & General Group Plc’s portfolio, making the stock its 15th largest holding. Legal & General Group Plc owned 0.82% of Exxon Mobil worth $3,719,296,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Patron Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Exxon Mobil by 7.4% in the 2nd quarter. Patron Partners LLC now owns 37,297 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $4,294,000 after purchasing an additional 2,564 shares during the last quarter. YHB Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Exxon Mobil by 5.9% in the second quarter. YHB Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 32,751 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $3,770,000 after buying an additional 1,836 shares during the last quarter. Cooksen Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Exxon Mobil during the 4th quarter worth $136,000. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp grew its stake in Exxon Mobil by 79.4% in the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 859,226 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $98,914,000 after buying an additional 380,399 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blair William & Co. IL grew its stake in Exxon Mobil by 64.6% in the 2nd quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 967,618 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $111,392,000 after buying an additional 379,747 shares during the last quarter. 61.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have issued reports on XOM. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Exxon Mobil from $157.00 to $149.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Barclays cut their price objective on Exxon Mobil from $147.00 to $142.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Mizuho raised their target price on Exxon Mobil from $128.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. Evercore ISI raised Exxon Mobil to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their price objective on Exxon Mobil from $139.00 to $138.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Exxon Mobil presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $135.82.

Exxon Mobil Stock Performance

NYSE:XOM opened at $112.80 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $115.77 and a 200 day moving average price of $115.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $444.77 billion, a PE ratio of 13.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.86 and a beta of 0.90. Exxon Mobil Co. has a 12-month low of $95.77 and a 12-month high of $123.75.

Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The oil and gas company reported $2.14 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.04 by $0.10. Exxon Mobil had a return on equity of 16.07% and a net margin of 9.73%. The business had revenue of $93.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $90.09 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.94 EPS. Exxon Mobil’s quarterly revenue was up 12.2% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Exxon Mobil Co. will post 8.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Exxon Mobil Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 15th were given a dividend of $0.95 per share. This represents a $3.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.37%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 15th. Exxon Mobil’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 46.57%.

About Exxon Mobil

Exxon Mobil Corporation engages in the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas in the United States and internationally. It operates through Upstream, Energy Products, Chemical Products, and Specialty Products segments. The Upstream segment explores for and produces crude oil and natural gas.