Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. Purchases 7,545 Shares of ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP)

Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. grew its position in shares of ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) by 25.2% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 37,493 shares of the energy producer’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,545 shares during the quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc.’s holdings in ConocoPhillips were worth $4,289,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in COP. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in ConocoPhillips by 35.8% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 32,192,580 shares of the energy producer’s stock worth $4,097,473,000 after buying an additional 8,479,963 shares during the last quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main raised its holdings in shares of ConocoPhillips by 512.8% in the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 3,737,026 shares of the energy producer’s stock valued at $433,757,000 after purchasing an additional 3,127,165 shares during the period. Capital International Investors lifted its stake in ConocoPhillips by 9.6% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 21,252,822 shares of the energy producer’s stock valued at $2,705,059,000 after purchasing an additional 1,856,085 shares during the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its position in ConocoPhillips by 46.0% during the first quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 3,219,929 shares of the energy producer’s stock worth $409,833,000 after buying an additional 1,015,158 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in ConocoPhillips by 5.8% in the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 14,986,970 shares of the energy producer’s stock valued at $1,907,542,000 after buying an additional 826,529 shares during the period. 82.36% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

COP has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on ConocoPhillips in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $145.00 target price for the company. Mizuho dropped their price objective on shares of ConocoPhillips from $132.00 to $129.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Argus upgraded shares of ConocoPhillips to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 7th. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of ConocoPhillips from $153.00 to $140.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Bank of America reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $147.00 target price on shares of ConocoPhillips in a research note on Friday, June 14th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $142.29.

Insider Transactions at ConocoPhillips

In related news, Director Timothy A. Leach sold 55,500 shares of ConocoPhillips stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $108.11, for a total transaction of $6,000,105.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 455,909 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $49,288,321.99. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

ConocoPhillips Stock Performance

NYSE COP opened at $109.87 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $109.76 and its 200 day simple moving average is $116.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $127.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.44, a P/E/G ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a current ratio of 1.33, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. ConocoPhillips has a 1 year low of $101.29 and a 1 year high of $135.18.

ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The energy producer reported $1.98 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.96 by $0.02. ConocoPhillips had a return on equity of 20.81% and a net margin of 18.18%. The firm had revenue of $14.14 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.96 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.84 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 9.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that ConocoPhillips will post 8.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ConocoPhillips Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 12th were paid a dividend of $0.58 per share. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.11%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 12th. ConocoPhillips’s payout ratio is 26.27%.

ConocoPhillips Profile

ConocoPhillips explores for, produces, transports, and markets crude oil, bitumen, natural gas, liquefied natural gas (LNG), and natural gas liquids in the United States, Canada, China, Libya, Malaysia, Norway, the United Kingdom, and internationally. The company's portfolio includes unconventional plays in North America; conventional assets in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia; global LNG developments; oil sands assets in Canada; and an inventory of global exploration prospects.