Devon Energy (NYSE:DVN) Earns “Buy” Rating from Argus

Devon Energy (NYSE:DVN)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by Argus in a research note issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $45.85 price target on the energy company’s stock. Argus’ price objective points to a potential downside of 1.43% from the company’s previous close.

DVN has been the subject of several other research reports. Tudor Pickering raised shares of Devon Energy from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Devon Energy from $62.00 to $55.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Devon Energy from $62.00 to $58.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Mizuho increased their target price on Devon Energy from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded Devon Energy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-three have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $59.15.

Devon Energy Stock Up 1.5%

Shares of DVN traded up $0.67 on Monday, hitting $46.52. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,271,027 shares, compared to its average volume of 13,521,717. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $43.40 and its 200-day moving average price is $45.18. Devon Energy has a fifty-two week low of $31.47 and a fifty-two week high of $52.71. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $51.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.04 and a beta of 0.38.

Devon Energy (NYSE:DVN) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The energy company reported $1.57 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.40 by $0.17. Devon Energy had a net margin of 16.67% and a return on equity of 14.93%. The firm had revenue of $7.42 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.01 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.84 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 73.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Devon Energy will post 4.99 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Devon Energy

In related news, SVP Andrea Alexander sold 18,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $46.74, for a total transaction of $841,320.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 138,529 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,474,845.46. This represents a 11.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 4.58% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. BlackRock Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Devon Energy by 57.6% during the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 95,378,854 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $3,941,054,000 after buying an additional 34,871,366 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new stake in shares of Devon Energy in the second quarter valued at about $421,226,000. GQG Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Devon Energy in the second quarter valued at about $402,558,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Devon Energy by 2,108.0% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 6,386,921 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $233,953,000 after acquiring an additional 6,097,658 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc bought a new stake in Devon Energy during the second quarter worth about $239,212,000. Institutional investors own 69.72% of the company’s stock.

Devon Energy Company Profile

Devon Energy Corporation (NYSE: DVN) is an independent oil and gas exploration and production company headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The company focuses on the exploration, development, production and marketing of hydrocarbons, including crude oil, natural gas liquids (NGLs) and natural gas. Devon operates as an upstream energy company that acquires, evaluates and develops onshore resource plays using a combination of drilling, completion and production optimization techniques.

Core business activities include identifying and developing energy reserves, operating well programs and managing reservoir performance to generate production and cash flow.