Imperial Oil (TSE:IMO) Reaches New 1-Year High – What’s Next?

Imperial Oil Limited (TSE:IMO) (NYSEMKT:IMO)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as C$155.33 and last traded at C$154.41, with a volume of 183927 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at C$153.68.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Raymond James Financial boosted their target price on shares of Imperial Oil from C$106.00 to C$107.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Desjardins lifted their price target on shares of Imperial Oil from C$114.00 to C$120.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, November 24th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce lowered shares of Imperial Oil from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from C$108.00 to C$110.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Imperial Oil from C$99.00 to C$108.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Imperial Oil from C$97.00 to C$101.00 in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and five have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of C$114.60.

Imperial Oil Stock Up 4.7%

The stock has a market capitalization of C$78.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.04, a P/E/G ratio of 0.21 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 18.04. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is C$130.78 and its 200 day simple moving average is C$127.46.

Imperial Oil (TSE:IMO) (NYSEMKT:IMO) last released its earnings results on Friday, January 30th. The company reported C$1.97 earnings per share for the quarter. Imperial Oil had a net margin of 10.00% and a return on equity of 21.23%. As a group, research analysts predict that Imperial Oil Limited will post 8.6164609 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Imperial Oil Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 1st were paid a dividend of $0.72 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, December 3rd. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. Imperial Oil’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.44%.

About Imperial Oil

Imperial Oil is one of Canada’s largest integrated oil companies, focusing on upstream operations, petroleum refining operations, and the marketing of petroleum products. Production averaged 398 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2020. The company estimates that it holds 5.2 billion boe of proved and probable crude oil and natural gas reserves. Imperial remains the largest refiner of petroleum products in Canada, operating three refineries with a combined processing capacity of 421 mboe/d.