Legal & General Group Plc Buys 545,831 Shares of Canadian Natural Resources Limited $CNQ

Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in shares of Canadian Natural Resources Limited (NYSE:CNQ) (TSE:CNQ) by 6.9% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 8,457,990 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after acquiring an additional 545,831 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned approximately 0.41% of Canadian Natural Resources worth $270,506,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Addison Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Canadian Natural Resources by 309.1% in the 2nd quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 896 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 677 shares during the last quarter. St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC acquired a new position in Canadian Natural Resources in the third quarter valued at about $32,000. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in Canadian Natural Resources by 100.0% in the third quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,000 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its stake in Canadian Natural Resources by 47.3% during the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,644 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $51,000 after buying an additional 528 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Canadian Natural Resources by 3,182.7% during the third quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,707 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $55,000 after buying an additional 1,655 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.03% of the company’s stock.

Canadian Natural Resources Stock Up 3.4%

Shares of CNQ opened at $47.26 on Thursday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $38.61 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $34.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $98.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.81 and a beta of 0.63. Canadian Natural Resources Limited has a 52 week low of $24.65 and a 52 week high of $47.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.53 and a current ratio of 0.95.

Canadian Natural Resources (NYSE:CNQ) (TSE:CNQ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 5th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $6.89 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.64 billion. Canadian Natural Resources had a net margin of 24.48% and a return on equity of 17.84%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.93 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Canadian Natural Resources Limited will post 2.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Canadian Natural Resources Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 20th will be issued a $0.625 dividend. This represents a $2.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.3%. This is a boost from Canadian Natural Resources’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 20th. Canadian Natural Resources’s dividend payout ratio is currently 45.53%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $35.00 target price on shares of Canadian Natural Resources and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 2nd. Evercore lowered Canadian Natural Resources from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 6th. Desjardins cut Canadian Natural Resources from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 24th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Canadian Natural Resources from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, January 31st. Finally, Zacks Research lowered Canadian Natural Resources from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Friday, March 6th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $50.00.

About Canadian Natural Resources

Canadian Natural Resources Limited (NYSE: CNQ) is a Calgary-based independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company. Established in the early 1970s and publicly listed in Canada and the United States, the company is principally engaged in the exploration, development, production, and marketing of crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids. Its asset base spans conventional and unconventional reservoirs and includes oil sands mining and in-situ thermal projects, midstream processing and upgrading capacity, and related field operations.

The company’s operations are concentrated in Western Canada, where it develops heavy crude, bitumen from oil sands and conventional light crude and natural gas resources.