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 during 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. Based on an average trading volume of 7,700,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.5 days. Currently, 0.9% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Institutional Trading of Cenovus Energy

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CVE. Smead Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Cenovus Energy by 39.3% during the 3rd quarter. Smead Capital Management Inc. now owns 15,416,146 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $257,831,000 after purchasing an additional 4,351,960 shares during the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. lifted its position in Cenovus Energy by 81.1% in the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 12,538,499 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $246,507,000 after buying an additional 5,613,320 shares during the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its position in Cenovus Energy by 5.3% in the 2nd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 11,186,227 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $219,897,000 after buying an additional 562,663 shares during the last quarter. Ninepoint Partners LP lifted its position in Cenovus Energy by 19.0% in the 2nd quarter. Ninepoint Partners LP now owns 7,500,000 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $147,450,000 after buying an additional 1,200,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Cenovus Energy by 9.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,413,919 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $109,232,000 after buying an additional 568,732 shares during the last quarter. 51.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. TD Securities cut Cenovus Energy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on shares of Cenovus Energy from $31.00 to $28.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 1st. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $28.00 price objective on shares of Cenovus Energy in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Cenovus Energy from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, December 28th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $30.00.

Cenovus Energy Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of CVE traded up $0.12 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $14.96. The stock had a trading volume of 5,332,511 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,576,211. The firm has a market capitalization of $27.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.31 and a beta of 2.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 1.59 and a quick ratio of 0.95. Cenovus Energy has a 1-year low of $14.20 and a 1-year high of $21.90. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $15.34 and a 200-day simple moving average of $17.14.

Cenovus Energy (NYSE:CVE) (TSE:CVE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The oil and gas company reported $0.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.08. The business 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 company’s quarterly revenue was down 17.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.72 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Cenovus Energy will post 1.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cenovus Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th were paid a $0.133 dividend. This is a boost from Cenovus Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. This represents a $0.53 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.56%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 13th. Cenovus Energy’s payout ratio 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.