Stock Traders Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on Cenovus Energy (NYSE:CVE)

Cenovus Energy Inc. (NYSE:CVE - Get Free Report) TSE: CVE saw unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Investors acquired 25,308 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 340% compared to the average volume of 5,747 call options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cenovus Energy

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio raised its position in shares of Cenovus Energy by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 241,113 shares of the oil and gas company's stock worth $3,653,000 after acquiring an additional 762 shares during the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its position in shares of Cenovus Energy by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 106,532 shares of the oil and gas company's stock worth $1,614,000 after acquiring an additional 779 shares during the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Cenovus Energy by 104.9% during the fourth quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,662 shares of the oil and gas company's stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 851 shares during the last quarter. Wahed Invest LLC raised its position in shares of Cenovus Energy by 5.6% during the third quarter. Wahed Invest LLC now owns 16,489 shares of the oil and gas company's stock worth $276,000 after acquiring an additional 875 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Montgomery Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Cenovus Energy by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Montgomery Investment Management Inc. now owns 56,535 shares of the oil and gas company's stock worth $857,000 after acquiring an additional 894 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 51.19% of the company's stock.

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Cenovus Energy Price Performance

Cenovus Energy stock traded up $0.04 on Friday, reaching $12.72. The company's stock had a trading volume of 14,812,481 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,597,966. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.59. The company has a market cap of $23.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.51 and a beta of 1.99. The business's fifty day moving average price is $14.72 and its 200 day moving average price is $15.89. Cenovus Energy has a twelve month low of $12.07 and a twelve month high of $21.90.

Cenovus Energy (NYSE:CVE - Get Free Report) TSE: CVE last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The oil and gas company reported $0.05 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.32 by ($0.27). The business had revenue of $8.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.08 billion. Cenovus Energy had a return on equity of 10.73% and a net margin of 5.82%. Equities analysts expect that Cenovus Energy will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cenovus Energy Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.1269 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $0.51 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.99%. Cenovus Energy's payout ratio is currently 40.50%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently weighed in on CVE shares. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on Cenovus Energy from $26.00 to $25.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 21st. StockNews.com lowered Cenovus Energy from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, December 28th. Finally, National Bank Financial lowered Cenovus Energy from an "outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Cenovus Energy has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $29.25.

About Cenovus Energy

Cenovus Energy Inc, together with its subsidiaries, develops, produces, refines, transports, and markets crude oil, natural gas, and refined petroleum products in Canada and internationally. The company operates through Oil Sands, Conventional, Offshore, Canadian Refining, and U.S. Refining segments.