California Public Employees Retirement System Trims Stake in Hess Co. (NYSE:HES)

California Public Employees Retirement System cut its position in shares of Hess Co. (NYSE:HES) by 2.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 508,422 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after selling 12,613 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Hess were worth $73,294,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in HES. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Hess by 2.4% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 37,239,078 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $5,697,579,000 after acquiring an additional 889,122 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its position in Hess by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 7,790,382 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $1,191,928,000 after purchasing an additional 303,942 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Hess by 44.1% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,610,484 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $552,404,000 after purchasing an additional 1,105,204 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in shares of Hess by 19.9% in the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,951,451 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $451,572,000 after purchasing an additional 489,169 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in shares of Hess by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,866,681 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $438,602,000 after purchasing an additional 42,802 shares during the period. 88.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on HES. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Hess from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on Hess from $172.00 to $173.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 18th. StockNews.com started coverage on Hess in a research note on Thursday. They set a “sell” rating for the company. Finally, Susquehanna raised their price objective on Hess from $156.00 to $164.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $177.42.

Hess Stock Up 1.4 %

Shares of HES stock opened at $159.13 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $150.82 and its 200 day moving average price is $147.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 0.96. Hess Co. has a 1-year low of $124.27 and a 1-year high of $167.75. The company has a market cap of $49.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.36 and a beta of 1.27.

Hess (NYSE:HES) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 31st. The oil and gas producer reported $1.63 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.43 by $0.20. Hess had a return on equity of 17.00% and a net margin of 12.98%. The business had revenue of $3.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.76 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.78 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Hess Co. will post 8.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hess Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 18th were given a dividend of $0.4375 per share. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 15th. Hess’s dividend payout ratio is presently 38.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Hess

In other news, COO Gregory P. Hill sold 56,925 shares of Hess stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.35, for a total transaction of $8,330,973.75. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 78,287 shares in the company, valued at $11,457,302.45. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, SVP Geurt G. Schoonman sold 13,921 shares of Hess stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $151.08, for a total transaction of $2,103,184.68. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 33,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,073,417.48. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Gregory P. Hill sold 56,925 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.35, for a total transaction of $8,330,973.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 78,287 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,457,302.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 155,798 shares of company stock worth $22,811,166. 9.76% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hess Company Profile

Hess Corporation, an exploration and production company, explores, develops, produces, purchases, transports, and sells crude oil, natural gas liquids (NGLs), and natural gas. The company operates in two segments, Exploration and Production, and Midstream. It conducts production operations primarily in the United States, Guyana, the Malaysia/Thailand Joint Development Area, and Malaysia; and exploration activities principally offshore Guyana, the U.S.