Chevron (NYSE:CVX) Price Target Lowered to $173.00 at Piper Sandler

Chevron (NYSE:CVX - Free Report) had its price target trimmed by Piper Sandler from $184.00 to $173.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the oil and gas company's stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also commented on CVX. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Chevron from $171.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Chevron from $170.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. DZ Bank raised Chevron from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $170.00 price objective for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Chevron from $194.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Scotiabank lowered their target price on shares of Chevron from $180.00 to $163.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Chevron has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $175.19.

Chevron Stock Performance

CVX traded down $2.93 during trading on Thursday, hitting $141.15. The stock had a trading volume of 16,519,994 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,754,055. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $155.19 and a 200-day moving average price of $152.13. Chevron has a one year low of $135.37 and a one year high of $167.11. The firm has a market cap of $253.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.51, a P/E/G ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.07 and a quick ratio of 0.80.

Chevron (NYSE:CVX - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 1st. The oil and gas company reported $2.51 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.47 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $50.67 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $48.86 billion. Chevron had a net margin of 8.44% and a return on equity of 13.15%. The company's revenue was down 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.05 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Chevron will post 10.5 EPS for the current year.

Chevron Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 10th. Investors of record on Monday, November 18th were paid a $1.63 dividend. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.62%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 18th. Chevron's dividend payout ratio is currently 71.65%.

Insider Activity at Chevron

In related news, CEO Michael K. Wirth sold 164,600 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.13, for a total value of $26,357,398.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,280 shares of the company's stock, valued at $685,356.40. This represents a 97.47 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Chevron

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. State Street Corp lifted its position in 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 acquiring an additional 874,962 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 3,203,899 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Chevron by 3.6% during the 3rd 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 buying an additional 672,244 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in Chevron by 3.4% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 17,200,188 shares of the oil and gas company's stock valued at $2,610,645,000 after acquiring an additional 573,218 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its position in shares of Chevron by 3.0% in the second 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 purchasing an additional 501,969 shares during the last quarter. 72.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Chevron

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.