Imperial Oil Limited (NYSEAMERICAN:IMO) Short Interest Update

Imperial Oil Limited (NYSEAMERICAN:IMO) (TSE:IMO) was the recipient of a significant drop in short interest in January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 14,560,000 shares, a drop of 8.1% from the January 15th total of 15,850,000 shares. Currently, 8.6% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 527,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 27.6 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on IMO. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Imperial Oil from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Wolfe Research lowered shares of Imperial Oil from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have issued a hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $109.00.

Imperial Oil Price Performance

Shares of NYSEAMERICAN IMO opened at $71.09 on Wednesday. Imperial Oil has a twelve month low of $58.60 and a twelve month high of $80.17. The firm has a market cap of $36.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.79 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a quick ratio of 1.23, a current ratio of 1.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Imperial Oil Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.4972 per share. This represents a $1.99 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.80%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 5th. This is an increase from Imperial Oil’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. Imperial Oil’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 25.80%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Imperial Oil

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC increased its stake in Imperial Oil by 16.9% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 43,162,088 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $2,659,965,000 after purchasing an additional 6,228,461 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its stake in Imperial Oil by 8.4% in the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 4,420,002 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $311,175,000 after purchasing an additional 341,689 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Imperial Oil by 29.0% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,086,840 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $67,634,000 after purchasing an additional 244,176 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in Imperial Oil by 29.0% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 945,002 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $58,212,000 after purchasing an additional 212,707 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Europe London LLP increased its stake in Imperial Oil by 131.2% in the third quarter. Point72 Europe London LLP now owns 356,972 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $25,134,000 after purchasing an additional 202,590 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 20.74% of the company’s stock.

About Imperial Oil

Imperial Oil Limited engages in exploration, production, and sale of crude oil and natural gas in Canada. The company operates through three segments: Upstream, Downstream and Chemical segments. The Upstream segment explores and produces crude oil, natural gas, synthetic crude oil, and bitumen. The Downstream segment transports and refines crude oil, blends refined products, and distributes and markets of refined products.