Imperial Oil (TSE:IMO) Sets New 1-Year High After Analyst Upgrade

Imperial Oil Limited (TSE:IMO) (NYSEMKT:IMO) reached a new 52-week high during trading on Monday after UBS Group raised their price target on the stock from C$155.00 to C$185.00. The company traded as high as C$169.40 and last traded at C$168.92, with a volume of 163629 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at C$165.54.

Several other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on IMO. National Bank Financial increased their target price on shares of Imperial Oil from C$127.00 to C$139.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. BMO Capital Markets cut Imperial Oil from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their target price for the company from C$132.00 to C$129.00 in a research note on Monday, December 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Imperial Oil from C$99.00 to C$108.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Raymond James Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Imperial Oil from C$106.00 to C$107.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, TD Securities boosted their price objective on shares of Imperial Oil from C$101.00 to C$110.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and six have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Strong Sell” and a consensus target price of C$122.45.

Imperial Oil Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 19.69. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of C$150.89 and a 200 day moving average price of C$135.19. The stock has a market cap of C$82.74 billion, a PE ratio of 26.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.21 and a beta of 0.90.

Imperial Oil (TSE:IMO) (NYSEMKT:IMO) last released 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 7.02% and a return on equity of 14.75%. The company had revenue of C$11.28 billion during the quarter. As a group, research analysts forecast that Imperial Oil Limited will post 8.6164609 earnings per share for the current year.

Imperial Oil Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 1st will be given a $0.87 dividend. This represents a $3.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 5th. This is a boost from Imperial Oil’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. Imperial Oil’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.