Canadian Natural Resources Limited to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.58 (NYSE:CNQ)

Canadian Natural Resources Limited (NYSE:CNQ – Get Rating) (TSE:CNQ) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, August 5th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 16th will be paid a dividend of 0.5822 per share by the oil and gas producer on Wednesday, October 5th. This represents a $2.33 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.48%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 15th.

Canadian Natural Resources has a dividend payout ratio of 28.1% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Canadian Natural Resources to earn $7.62 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.33 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 30.6%.

Canadian Natural Resources Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CNQ traded up $1.08 on Friday, hitting $51.99. The stock had a trading volume of 478,397 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,119,189. Canadian Natural Resources has a twelve month low of $29.53 and a twelve month high of $70.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a current ratio of 0.75. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $55.55 and its 200-day moving average price is $57.79. The company has a market capitalization of $59.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.51 and a beta of 1.50.

Canadian Natural Resources (NYSE:CNQ – Get Rating) (TSE:CNQ) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 5th. The oil and gas producer reported $2.26 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.94 by $0.32. Canadian Natural Resources had a net margin of 24.71% and a return on equity of 26.32%. The company had revenue of $8.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.12 billion. On average, equities research analysts predict that Canadian Natural Resources will post 8.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Canadian Natural Resources

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Canadian Natural Resources by 6.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 40,235,475 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $2,493,796,000 after acquiring an additional 2,332,528 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership bought a new stake in shares of Canadian Natural Resources in the 1st quarter valued at about $960,796,000. Capital International Investors increased its stake in shares of Canadian Natural Resources by 88.2% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 7,930,544 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $491,064,000 after acquiring an additional 3,716,523 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Canadian Natural Resources by 30.3% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,486,160 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $154,092,000 after acquiring an additional 577,891 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BlackRock Inc. increased its stake in shares of Canadian Natural Resources by 31.5% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 896,093 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $55,540,000 after acquiring an additional 214,665 shares during the last quarter. 68.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on CNQ shares. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Canadian Natural Resources from C$92.00 to C$95.00 in a research note on Friday, May 6th. Bank of America upgraded shares of Canadian Natural Resources from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $100.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 19th. TD Securities lifted their price target on Canadian Natural Resources from C$90.00 to C$94.00 in a report on Friday, May 6th. Credit Suisse Group lifted their price target on Canadian Natural Resources from C$85.00 to C$93.00 in a report on Monday, May 9th. Finally, CIBC lifted their price target on Canadian Natural Resources from C$80.00 to C$90.00 in a report on Thursday, April 14th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $86.79.

Canadian Natural Resources Company Profile

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Canadian Natural Resources Limited acquires, explores for, develops, produces, markets, and sells crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids (NGLs). The company offers synthetic crude oil (SCO), light and medium crude oil, bitumen (thermal oil), primary heavy crude oil, and Pelican Lake heavy crude oil.