Traders Buy Large Volume of Chevron Call Options (NYSE:CVX)

Chevron Co. (NYSE:CVX) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Investors purchased 93,873 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 157% compared to the typical daily volume of 36,581 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Chevron by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 159,105,244 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $23,431,429,000 after purchasing an additional 874,962 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Chevron by 11.5% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 31,108,760 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $4,581,137,000 after purchasing an additional 3,203,899 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Chevron by 3.6% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 19,482,388 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $2,869,171,000 after purchasing an additional 672,244 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Chevron by 3.0% in the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 17,111,051 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $2,676,957,000 after buying an additional 501,969 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors grew its position in shares of Chevron by 3.2% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 16,009,766 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $2,525,380,000 after buying an additional 495,879 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 72.42% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Truist Financial increased their target price on shares of Chevron from $150.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Chevron from $168.00 to $174.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. DZ Bank raised shares of Chevron from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $170.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Chevron from $170.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of Chevron from $196.00 to $169.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $174.93.

Chevron Price Performance

CVX traded down $0.38 on Friday, hitting $161.42. 9,009,582 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,677,757. Chevron has a fifty-two week low of $135.37 and a fifty-two week high of $167.11. The stock has a market cap of $290.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.74, a P/E/G ratio of 3.57 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a current ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $148.93 and a 200-day moving average price of $152.71.

Chevron (NYSE:CVX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 1st. The oil and gas company reported $2.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.47 by $0.04. Chevron had a net margin of 8.44% and a return on equity of 13.15%. The business had revenue of $50.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $48.86 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.05 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Chevron will post 10.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Chevron Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be given a $1.63 dividend. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 18th. Chevron’s payout ratio is 71.65%.

Chevron Company Profile

Chevron Corporation, through its subsidiaries, engages in the integrated energy and chemicals operations in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Upstream and Downstream. The Upstream segment is involved in the exploration, development, production, and transportation of crude oil and natural gas; processing, liquefaction, transportation, and regasification of liquefied natural gas; transportation of crude oil through pipelines; transportation, storage, and marketing of natural gas; and carbon capture and storage, as well as a gas-to-liquids plant.