California Resources Co. (NYSE:CRC) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

California Resources Co. (NYSE:CRC) has earned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twelve research firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $66.09.

Several brokerages have recently commented on CRC. TD Cowen increased their price objective on California Resources from $65.00 to $74.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of California Resources from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 16th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of California Resources from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of California Resources from $63.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, UBS Group began coverage on shares of California Resources in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $68.00 price target for the company.

Insider Buying and Selling at California Resources

In other California Resources news, EVP Omar Hayat sold 16,016 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.18, for a total transaction of $883,762.88. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 30,940 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,707,269.20. The trade was a 34.11 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Noelle M. Repetti sold 8,770 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.75, for a total transaction of $488,927.50. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 8,531 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $475,603.25. This represents a 50.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.63% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CRC. Point72 Asset Management L.P. boosted its position in shares of California Resources by 2,615.2% during the second quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 843,011 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $44,865,000 after purchasing an additional 811,963 shares in the last quarter. Samlyn Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of California Resources during the 2nd quarter valued at $28,566,000. Weiss Asset Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of California Resources in the 3rd quarter worth about $28,043,000. American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in shares of California Resources by 18.1% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,631,432 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $86,825,000 after acquiring an additional 250,367 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SIR Capital Management L.P. purchased a new position in California Resources during the 2nd quarter valued at about $11,820,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.79% of the company’s stock.

California Resources Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of CRC opened at $51.50 on Thursday. California Resources has a 1-year low of $43.09 and a 1-year high of $60.41. The company has a market capitalization of $4.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.11, a P/E/G ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.89. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $54.98 and its 200 day simple moving average is $52.26.

California Resources (NYSE:CRC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The oil and gas producer reported $1.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.88 by $0.62. The firm had revenue of $1.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $973.13 million. California Resources had a net margin of 17.43% and a return on equity of 12.16%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 194.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.02 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that California Resources will post 3.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

California Resources Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd were paid a $0.3875 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $1.55 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.01%. California Resources’s payout ratio is presently 24.41%.

California Resources Company Profile

California Resources Corporation operates as an independent oil and natural gas exploration and production, and carbon management company in the United States. The company explores, produces, and markets crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids for marketers, California refineries, and other purchasers that have access to transportation and storage facilities.