Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV Grows Holdings in ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP)

Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV raised its position in ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) by 13.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,166 shares of the energy producer’s stock after purchasing an additional 368 shares during the period. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV’s holdings in ConocoPhillips were worth $314,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of ConocoPhillips by 19.0% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 66,928,793 shares of the energy producer’s stock valued at $7,046,263,000 after acquiring an additional 10,663,093 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of ConocoPhillips by 20.2% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 31,161,897 shares of the energy producer’s stock valued at $3,280,725,000 after acquiring an additional 5,240,016 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of ConocoPhillips by 59.7% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 12,456,011 shares of the energy producer’s stock valued at $1,311,369,000 after acquiring an additional 4,656,040 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of ConocoPhillips by 5,422.3% during the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 4,587,729 shares of the energy producer’s stock valued at $482,996,000 after acquiring an additional 4,504,653 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in shares of ConocoPhillips by 401.5% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 4,423,611 shares of the energy producer’s stock valued at $438,690,000 after acquiring an additional 3,541,504 shares during the last quarter. 82.36% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Arjun N. Murti acquired 2,500 shares of ConocoPhillips stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 20th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $95.87 per share, for a total transaction of $239,675.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 21,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,061,205. This trade represents a 13.16 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on COP. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on shares of ConocoPhillips from $135.00 to $114.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of ConocoPhillips from $132.00 to $128.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Raymond James downgraded shares of ConocoPhillips from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $157.00 to $124.00 in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Mizuho raised shares of ConocoPhillips from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $132.00 to $134.00 in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Truist Financial increased their target price on shares of ConocoPhillips from $138.00 to $139.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $133.05.

ConocoPhillips Stock Performance

ConocoPhillips stock opened at $101.33 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $128.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a current ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $99.19 and a 200-day moving average of $103.54. ConocoPhillips has a 52 week low of $86.81 and a 52 week high of $135.18.

ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The energy producer reported $1.98 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.20. ConocoPhillips had a return on equity of 17.26% and a net margin of 16.23%. On average, analysts expect that ConocoPhillips will post 8.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ConocoPhillips Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Monday, February 17th were paid a dividend of $0.78 per share. This represents a $3.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. ConocoPhillips’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 40.05%.

About ConocoPhillips

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.