Short Interest in Cenovus Energy Inc. (NYSE:CVE) Decreases By 37.3%

Cenovus Energy Inc. (NYSE:CVE) (TSE:CVE) saw a large decrease in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 11,180,000 shares, a decrease of 37.3% from the December 15th total of 17,820,000 shares. Currently, 0.9% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 7,700,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.5 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on CVE. TD Securities cut shares of Cenovus Energy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $28.00 price target on shares of Cenovus Energy in a report on Monday, January 6th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on Cenovus Energy from $31.00 to $28.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Cenovus Energy from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, December 28th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $30.00.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cenovus Energy

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CVE. Truvestments Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cenovus Energy in the third quarter worth $25,000. Blue Trust Inc. grew its position in shares of Cenovus Energy by 640.3% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 3,065 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $51,000 after buying an additional 2,651 shares during the last quarter. SevenBridge Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cenovus Energy in the third quarter valued at about $162,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. raised its position in shares of Cenovus Energy by 8.0% during the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 8,648 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $170,000 after acquiring an additional 643 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Empirical Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cenovus Energy in the fourth quarter worth approximately $174,000. 51.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Cenovus Energy Trading Down 1.9 %

NYSE CVE opened at $14.84 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $27.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.23 and a beta of 2.01. Cenovus Energy has a twelve month low of $14.20 and a twelve month high of $21.90. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The business’s fifty day moving average is $15.37 and its 200 day moving average is $17.16.

Cenovus Energy (NYSE:CVE) (TSE:CVE) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The oil and gas company reported $0.42 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $14.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.25 billion. Cenovus Energy had a return on equity of 12.88% and a net margin of 6.72%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 17.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.72 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Cenovus Energy will post 1.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cenovus Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th were given a dividend of $0.133 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 13th. This is an increase from Cenovus Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. This represents a $0.53 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.59%. Cenovus Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 35.17%.

Cenovus Energy Company Profile

Cenovus Energy Inc, together with its subsidiaries, develops, produces, refines, transports, and markets crude oil, natural gas, and refined petroleum products in Canada and internationally. The company operates through Oil Sands, Conventional, Offshore, Canadian Refining, and U.S. Refining segments.