FNY Investment Advisers LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Hess Co. (NYSE:HES)

FNY Investment Advisers LLC lifted its position in Hess Co. (NYSE:HES) by 27.5% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,690 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after buying an additional 365 shares during the quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC’s holdings in Hess were worth $224,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of HES. Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Hess by 2.4% during the third quarter. Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,266 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $444,000 after purchasing an additional 78 shares during the period. Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Hess by 6.6% in the third quarter. Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,577 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $214,000 after purchasing an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. Covestor Ltd increased its stake in Hess by 59.8% during the 3rd quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 262 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 98 shares during the period. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Hess by 6.3% during the 3rd quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,673 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $231,000 after buying an additional 99 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CVA Family Office LLC boosted its position in Hess by 31.1% in the 3rd quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 451 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $61,000 after buying an additional 107 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.51% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group increased their price objective on Hess from $173.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. StockNews.com assumed coverage on Hess in a research report on Monday. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on Hess from $149.00 to $154.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Hess from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $151.00 to $193.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their price target on shares of Hess from $157.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Hess presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $170.50.

Insider Buying and Selling at Hess

In other Hess news, CEO John B. Hess sold 125,000 shares of Hess stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $147.08, for a total value of $18,385,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 217,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $32,047,849.52. The trade was a 36.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Geurt G. Schoonman sold 6,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $141.91, for a total transaction of $851,460.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 27,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,914,019.71. The trade was a 17.87 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 314,370 shares of company stock worth $45,856,309. 9.76% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hess Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of NYSE:HES opened at $146.59 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $140.21 and a 200-day simple moving average of $139.41. Hess Co. has a twelve month low of $123.79 and a twelve month high of $163.98. The company has a current ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75. The company has a market capitalization of $45.17 billion, a PE ratio of 17.09 and a beta of 1.18.

Hess (NYSE:HES) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The oil and gas producer reported $2.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.88 by $0.26. The company had revenue of $3.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.96 billion. Hess had a net margin of 20.58% and a return on equity of 27.41%. Hess’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.64 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Hess Co. will post 9.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hess Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.36%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. Hess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.31%.

About Hess

Hess Corporation, an exploration and production company, explores, develops, produces, purchases, transports, and sells crude oil, natural gas liquids (NGLs), and natural gas. The company operates in two segments, Exploration and Production, and Midstream. It conducts production operations primarily in the United States, Guyana, the Malaysia/Thailand Joint Development Area, and Malaysia; and exploration activities principally offshore Guyana, the U.S.