Imperial Oil (TSE:IMO) Reaches New 52-Week High – Still a Buy?

Shares of Imperial Oil Limited (TSE:IMO) (NYSEMKT:IMO) reached a new 52-week high during trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as C$155.33 and last traded at C$154.41, with a volume of 183927 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at C$153.68.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on IMO. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their target price on shares of Imperial Oil from C$118.00 to C$116.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 13th. Desjardins boosted their price objective on Imperial Oil from C$114.00 to C$120.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, November 24th. TD Securities decreased their price objective on Imperial Oil from C$107.00 to C$106.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 16th. Raymond James Financial lifted their target price on Imperial Oil from C$106.00 to C$107.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce lowered Imperial Oil from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and increased their price target for the company from C$108.00 to C$110.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 15th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and five have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of C$114.60.

Imperial Oil Stock Up 0.7%

The company has a 50-day simple moving average of C$129.43 and a 200 day simple moving average of C$126.65. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 18.04. The company has a market cap of C$74.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.88, a P/E/G ratio of 0.21 and a beta of 0.95.

Imperial Oil (TSE:IMO) (NYSEMKT:IMO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 30th. The company reported C$1.97 earnings per share for the quarter. Imperial Oil had a net margin of 10.00% and a return on equity of 21.23%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Imperial Oil Limited will post 8.6164609 EPS for the current year.

Imperial Oil Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 1st were issued a dividend of $0.72 per share. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, December 3rd. Imperial Oil’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.44%.

About Imperial Oil

Imperial Oil is one of Canada’s largest integrated oil companies, focusing on upstream operations, petroleum refining operations, and the marketing of petroleum products. Production averaged 398 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2020. The company estimates that it holds 5.2 billion boe of proved and probable crude oil and natural gas reserves. Imperial remains the largest refiner of petroleum products in Canada, operating three refineries with a combined processing capacity of 421 mboe/d.