Devon Energy (NYSE:DVN) Raised to “Strong-Buy” at Seaport Research Partners

Devon Energy (NYSE:DVN) was upgraded by equities researchers at Seaport Research Partners to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on DVN. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Devon Energy from $65.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of Devon Energy from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on shares of Devon Energy from $54.00 to $53.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Capital One Financial dropped their target price on Devon Energy from $63.00 to $61.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, Wolfe Research set a $67.00 price target on Devon Energy and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $59.23.

Devon Energy Price Performance

Shares of DVN opened at $48.73 on Wednesday. Devon Energy has a 1-year low of $31.47 and a 1-year high of $52.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 0.72 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $44.67 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $45.77. The stock has a market cap of $53.60 billion, a PE ratio of 11.57, a P/E/G ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.37.

Devon Energy (NYSE:DVN) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The energy company reported $1.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.40 by $0.17. The company had revenue of $7.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.01 billion. Devon Energy had a return on equity of 14.93% and a net margin of 16.67%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 73.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.84 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Devon Energy will post 5.2 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Devon Energy

In other Devon Energy news, SVP Andrea Alexander sold 18,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $46.74, for a total value of $841,320.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 138,529 shares in the company, valued at $6,474,845.46. This represents a 11.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 4.58% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. California State Teachers Retirement System increased its holdings in shares of Devon Energy by 7,555.6% in the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 52,787,085 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $2,181,162,000 after acquiring an additional 52,097,561 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of Devon Energy by 418.3% during the 2nd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 51,522,376 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $2,128,905,000 after acquiring an additional 41,581,435 shares during the period. 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 acquiring an additional 34,871,366 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new stake in shares of Devon Energy in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $421,226,000. Finally, GQG Partners LLC purchased a new position in Devon Energy in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $402,558,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.72% of the company’s stock.

About Devon Energy

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.