Evercore ISI Upgrades Ovintiv (NYSE:OVV) to “Outperform”

Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Ovintiv (NYSE:OVV) from an in-line rating to an outperform rating in a research report released on Friday, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have $60.00 price objective on the stock.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on OVV. Citigroup upped their price objective on Ovintiv from $52.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. TD Cowen increased their price target on Ovintiv from $64.00 to $66.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Monday, June 10th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Ovintiv from $49.00 to $53.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research note on Monday, April 15th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Ovintiv from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 15th. Finally, Barclays initiated coverage on Ovintiv in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. They set an overweight rating and a $69.00 price objective on the stock. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $58.65.

Ovintiv Price Performance

Shares of OVV opened at $45.64 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 0.52 and a current ratio of 0.52. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $50.48 and a 200 day simple moving average of $47.29. Ovintiv has a 52-week low of $34.50 and a 52-week high of $55.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.19 billion, a PE ratio of 6.37 and a beta of 2.58.

Ovintiv (NYSE:OVV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The company reported $1.44 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.32 by $0.12. Ovintiv had a return on equity of 17.74% and a net margin of 18.12%. The firm had revenue of $2.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.58 billion. Sell-side analysts predict that Ovintiv will post 6.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ovintiv Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be given a dividend of $0.30 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 14th. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.63%. Ovintiv’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.76%.

Insider Transactions at Ovintiv

In other Ovintiv news, Director Howard John Mayson sold 4,000 shares of Ovintiv stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.14, for a total value of $204,560.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 45,279 shares in the company, valued at $2,315,568.06. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, Director Howard John Mayson sold 4,000 shares of Ovintiv stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.14, for a total transaction of $204,560.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 45,279 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,315,568.06. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Steven W. Nance sold 12,000 shares of Ovintiv stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $600,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 8,929 shares in the company, valued at approximately $446,450. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.97% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of OVV. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Ovintiv by 10.1% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 27,029,983 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,285,816,000 after purchasing an additional 2,484,554 shares during the last quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ovintiv in the fourth quarter valued at $67,149,000. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. raised its stake in shares of Ovintiv by 1,560.9% in the fourth quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,451,240 shares of the company’s stock valued at $63,738,000 after buying an additional 1,363,865 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado raised its stake in shares of Ovintiv by 2,602.0% in the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 715,158 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,410,000 after buying an additional 688,690 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Ovintiv by 2.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 22,877,626 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,088,289,000 after buying an additional 507,562 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.81% of the company’s stock.

About Ovintiv

Ovintiv Inc, together with its subsidiaries, explores, develops, produces, and markets natural gas, oil, and natural gas liquids in the United States and Canada. The company operates through USA Operations, Canadian Operations, and Market Optimization segments. Its principal assets include Permian in west Texas and Anadarko in west-central Oklahoma; and Montney in northeast British Columbia and northwest Alberta.