United Services Automobile Association Cuts Holdings in Cenovus Energy Inc. (NYSE:CVE)

United Services Automobile Association lowered its stake in shares of Cenovus Energy Inc. (NYSE:CVE) (TSE:CVE) by 23.0% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 328,989 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after selling 98,416 shares during the period. United Services Automobile Association’s holdings in Cenovus Energy were worth $5,502,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of CVE. Smead Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in Cenovus Energy by 39.3% in the third quarter. Smead Capital Management Inc. now owns 15,416,146 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $257,831,000 after purchasing an additional 4,351,960 shares in the last quarter. Entropy Technologies LP acquired a new position in shares of Cenovus Energy during the third quarter worth $3,472,000. HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Cenovus Energy during the 3rd quarter valued at about $11,569,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Cenovus Energy in the second quarter valued at about $2,946,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Cenovus Energy by 11.2% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,653,192 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $61,163,000 after purchasing an additional 369,021 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 51.19% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on CVE. TD Securities downgraded Cenovus Energy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Cenovus Energy from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on shares of Cenovus Energy from $31.00 to $28.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $30.00.

Cenovus Energy Price Performance

NYSE:CVE opened at $15.02 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $27.43 billion, a PE ratio of 10.36 and a beta of 2.02. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $16.49 and its 200-day moving average price is $18.04. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. Cenovus Energy Inc. has a 52 week low of $14.69 and a 52 week high of $21.90.

Cenovus Energy (NYSE:CVE) (TSE:CVE) last announced its 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 firm had revenue of $14.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.25 billion. Cenovus Energy had a return on equity of 12.88% and a net margin of 6.72%. The business’s revenue was down 17.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.72 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Cenovus Energy Inc. will post 1.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cenovus Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be issued a $0.133 dividend. This represents a $0.53 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.54%. This is a boost from Cenovus Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. Cenovus Energy’s payout ratio is presently 36.55%.

Cenovus Energy 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.