Bollard Group LLC Raises Position in ConocoPhillips $COP

Bollard Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 148,297 shares of the energy producer’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,386 shares during the period. Bollard Group LLC’s holdings in ConocoPhillips were worth $14,027,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. lifted its position in ConocoPhillips by 8.4% during the second quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 1,650 shares of the energy producer’s stock worth $148,000 after buying an additional 128 shares during the period. Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. grew its holdings in ConocoPhillips by 58.3% in the 2nd quarter. Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. now owns 184,855 shares of the energy producer’s stock valued at $16,644,000 after buying an additional 68,070 shares during the period. Advisors Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of ConocoPhillips by 3.1% during the 2nd quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC now owns 12,351 shares of the energy producer’s stock valued at $1,108,000 after acquiring an additional 371 shares during the last quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC increased its stake in shares of ConocoPhillips by 6.2% during the 2nd quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC now owns 749,619 shares of the energy producer’s stock valued at $67,271,000 after acquiring an additional 43,841 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS lifted its holdings in shares of ConocoPhillips by 6.1% during the 2nd quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 309,613 shares of the energy producer’s stock worth $27,785,000 after acquiring an additional 17,839 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.36% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on COP shares. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of ConocoPhillips from $132.00 to $133.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of ConocoPhillips from $98.00 to $103.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Raymond James Financial lifted their target price on ConocoPhillips from $113.00 to $118.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. Citigroup boosted their price target on ConocoPhillips from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 2nd. Finally, Zacks Research lowered ConocoPhillips from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $119.33.

ConocoPhillips Stock Up 1.5%

Shares of NYSE:COP opened at $122.00 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $150.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 0.27. The company has a 50 day moving average of $106.62 and a two-hundred day moving average of $96.94. ConocoPhillips has a 52-week low of $79.88 and a 52-week high of $122.50. The company has a quick ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35.

ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The energy producer reported $1.02 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.23 by ($0.21). The firm had revenue of $13.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.35 billion. ConocoPhillips had a return on equity of 11.90% and a net margin of 12.98%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.98 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that ConocoPhillips will post 8.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ConocoPhillips Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 18th were issued a $0.84 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 18th. This represents a $3.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.8%. ConocoPhillips’s payout ratio is currently 53.00%.

ConocoPhillips News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting ConocoPhillips this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Higher crude and geopolitical risk are drawing investor attention to major producers, lifting the sector and COP in particular. Oil Price Back to the Glory Days
• Positive Sentiment: Piper Sandler raised its price target on COP to $154 and set an “overweight” rating, implying significant upside from current levels — a formal analyst endorsement that can support buyer interest. Piper Sandler PT Raise
• Positive Sentiment: TheStreet highlights that while oil-price swings move the stock, the bigger long-term catalyst may be ConocoPhillips’ internal execution — cash returns, portfolio optimization and disciplined capex — which investors view as durable value drivers. Oil’s whiplash is powering ConocoPhillips
• Neutral Sentiment: Broader commentary notes a sector rotation into energy as crude recovers; this macro interest helps COP but increases reliance on commodity moves rather than idiosyncratic stock drivers. Energy is no longer dead money
• Negative Sentiment: An insider sale — a ConocoPhillips director sold roughly $4.75M of stock — is being reported and can be viewed as a near-term caution for some investors. Insider Selling
• Negative Sentiment: Recent quarterly results missed estimates (EPS and revenue), reminding investors that higher oil prices need to translate into consistent operational and earnings improvement to sustain multiple expansion.

Insider Buying and Selling at ConocoPhillips

In other ConocoPhillips news, Director Timothy A. Leach sold 40,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $118.79, for a total value of $4,751,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 411,211 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $48,847,754.69. This represents a 8.87% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Kelly Brunetti Rose sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $118.04, for a total value of $1,003,340.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 32,984 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,893,431.36. This represents a 20.49% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 549,208 shares of company stock valued at $52,070,430 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

ConocoPhillips Company Profile

ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) is a Houston-based international energy company focused on exploration and production of oil and natural gas. Formed in 2002 through the merger of Conoco Inc and Phillips Petroleum Company, the firm operates as an independent upstream company that explores for, develops and produces crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids across a portfolio of global assets.

The company’s activities span conventional and unconventional resources and include onshore and offshore operations in multiple regions around the world.