Short Interest in Canadian Natural Resources Limited (NYSE:CNQ) Increases By 229.2%

Canadian Natural Resources Limited (NYSE:CNQ) (TSE:CNQ) saw a large increase in short interest in the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 107,420,000 shares, an increase of 229.2% from the February 29th total of 32,630,000 shares. Currently, 10.2% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 2,930,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 36.7 days.

Canadian Natural Resources Stock Performance

Shares of Canadian Natural Resources stock traded up $0.67 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $76.14. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 955,891 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,972,267. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $66.72 and its 200 day simple moving average is $65.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 0.96. Canadian Natural Resources has a one year low of $52.66 and a one year high of $76.21. The stock has a market cap of $81.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.68 and a beta of 1.53.

Canadian Natural Resources (NYSE:CNQ) (TSE:CNQ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 29th. The oil and gas producer reported $1.72 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.59 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $7.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.73 billion. Canadian Natural Resources had a net margin of 20.15% and a return on equity of 21.74%. As a group, analysts expect that Canadian Natural Resources will post 5.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Canadian Natural Resources Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 5th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.774 per share. This is a boost from Canadian Natural Resources’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $3.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.07%. Canadian Natural Resources’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 53.25%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Canadian Natural Resources

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Canadian Natural Resources by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 43,099,191 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $2,823,859,000 after acquiring an additional 835,633 shares in the last quarter. FIL Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Canadian Natural Resources by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 23,340,567 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $1,529,146,000 after purchasing an additional 250,256 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Canadian Natural Resources by 24.4% during the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 21,562,341 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $1,419,556,000 after purchasing an additional 4,224,598 shares during the period. 1832 Asset Management L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of Canadian Natural Resources by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 15,792,161 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $1,034,702,000 after purchasing an additional 58,960 shares during the period. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership acquired a new stake in shares of Canadian Natural Resources during the first quarter worth approximately $960,796,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Canadian Natural Resources from $101.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $94.00.

About Canadian Natural Resources

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