T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. Reduces Stake in Canadian Natural Resources Limited $CNQ

T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. reduced its holdings in Canadian Natural Resources Limited (NYSE:CNQ) (TSE:CNQ) by 17.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 34,178,745 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after selling 7,180,282 shares during the quarter. Canadian Natural Resources comprises 0.7% of T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 29th largest position. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Canadian Natural Resources were worth $1,156,951,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in CNQ. Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in Canadian Natural Resources by 31.5% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 146,331,336 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $4,956,204,000 after purchasing an additional 35,067,143 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Canadian Natural Resources by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 93,305,198 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $3,160,340,000 after buying an additional 818,809 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Canadian Natural Resources by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 42,745,981 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $1,446,951,000 after buying an additional 1,342,954 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Canadian Natural Resources by 7.0% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 20,518,621 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $710,119,000 after buying an additional 1,347,844 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in Canadian Natural Resources by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 14,308,539 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $484,344,000 after acquiring an additional 260,746 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CNQ has been the subject of several research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Canadian Natural Resources from $37.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 12th. ATB Cormark Capital Markets downgraded Canadian Natural Resources from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 5th. Zacks Research cut shares of Canadian Natural Resources from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, June 8th. Scotiabank reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Canadian Natural Resources in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Finally, Raymond James Financial raised shares of Canadian Natural Resources from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $57.00.

Canadian Natural Resources Stock Performance

Shares of CNQ opened at $40.97 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. Canadian Natural Resources Limited has a 12 month low of $29.30 and a 12 month high of $51.34. The company has a market cap of $85.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.23 and a beta of 0.45. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $46.02 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $41.69.

Canadian Natural Resources (NYSE:CNQ) (TSE:CNQ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.74 by $0.11. Canadian Natural Resources had a return on equity of 17.49% and a net margin of 22.04%.The company had revenue of $7.72 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.57 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.16 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Canadian Natural Resources Limited will post 4.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Canadian Natural Resources Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 7th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 23rd will be paid a $0.625 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 23rd. This represents a $2.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.1%. Canadian Natural Resources’s payout ratio is currently 54.63%.

Canadian Natural Resources Company Profile

Canadian Natural Resources Limited (NYSE: CNQ) is a Calgary-based independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company. Established in the early 1970s and publicly listed in Canada and the United States, the company is principally engaged in the exploration, development, production, and marketing of crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids. Its asset base spans conventional and unconventional reservoirs and includes oil sands mining and in-situ thermal projects, midstream processing and upgrading capacity, and related field operations.

The company’s operations are concentrated in Western Canada, where it develops heavy crude, bitumen from oil sands and conventional light crude and natural gas resources.