Exxon Mobil Co. (NYSE:XOM – Get Free Report) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 93,440,000 shares, an increase of 7.3% from the January 15th total of 87,080,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 20,340,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.6 days. Currently, 2.3% of the company’s stock are sold short.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
XOM has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Exxon Mobil from $134.00 to $127.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 8th. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Exxon Mobil from $133.00 to $132.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 23rd. Redburn Atlantic upgraded shares of Exxon Mobil from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $116.00 to $119.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 9th. Erste Group Bank reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Exxon Mobil in a research report on Friday, December 22nd. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded shares of Exxon Mobil from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $115.00 target price for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 23rd. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Exxon Mobil presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $127.53.
Exxon Mobil Stock Up 1.6 %
Shares of XOM stock traded up $1.60 on Thursday, reaching $102.44. 4,018,583 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 18,636,209. The company has a current ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $100.82 and its 200 day moving average price is $106.29. The company has a market capitalization of $405.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.38, a PEG ratio of 3.66 and a beta of 0.97. Exxon Mobil has a twelve month low of $95.77 and a twelve month high of $120.70.
Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 2nd. The oil and gas company reported $2.48 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.20 by $0.28. Exxon Mobil had a net margin of 10.45% and a return on equity of 18.51%. The firm had revenue of $84.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $90.03 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.40 earnings per share. Exxon Mobil’s quarterly revenue was down 11.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Exxon Mobil will post 9.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Exxon Mobil Dividend Announcement
The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 11th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 14th will be given a $0.95 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 13th. This represents a $3.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.71%. Exxon Mobil’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 42.74%.
Insider Transactions at Exxon Mobil
In other news, Director Jeffrey W. Ubben sold 2,077,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $104.06, for a total transaction of $216,132,620.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 13,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,352,780. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other Exxon Mobil news, Director Jeffrey W. Ubben sold 2,077,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $104.06, for a total value of $216,132,620.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 13,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,352,780. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Leonard M. Fox sold 12,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.65, for a total transaction of $1,231,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 220,678 shares in the company, valued at $22,652,596.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.
Institutional Investors Weigh In On Exxon Mobil
Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Exxon Mobil by 3.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 145,199,301 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $17,072,534,000 after buying an additional 4,162,149 shares during the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Exxon Mobil by 140,855.3% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 123,341,568 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $13,604,575,000 after buying an additional 123,254,064 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Exxon Mobil by 0.3% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 74,126,090 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $7,930,414,000 after buying an additional 254,968 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Exxon Mobil in the fourth quarter valued at about $5,519,753,000. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in shares of Exxon Mobil by 2.0% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 53,828,024 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $6,329,099,000 after buying an additional 1,066,937 shares during the last quarter. 58.53% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Exxon Mobil Company Profile
Exxon Mobil Corporation engages in the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas in the United States and internationally. It operates through Upstream, Energy Products, Chemical Products, and Specialty Products segments. The Upstream segment explores for and produces crude oil and natural gas.