Wedbush Securities Inc. Reduces Holdings in Phillips 66 (NYSE:PSX)

Wedbush Securities Inc. cut its stake in Phillips 66 (NYSE:PSX) by 12.5% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 16,549 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after selling 2,367 shares during the quarter. Wedbush Securities Inc.’s holdings in Phillips 66 were worth $1,885,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. boosted its position in shares of Phillips 66 by 10.6% in the 4th quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 46,953 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $5,349,000 after purchasing an additional 4,515 shares during the period. Flavin Financial Services Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Phillips 66 in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,190,000. Everence Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Phillips 66 during the fourth quarter worth approximately $3,033,000. Donoghue Forlines LLC purchased a new position in shares of Phillips 66 during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,438,000. Finally, Smith Group Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Phillips 66 in the 4th quarter valued at $1,149,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.93% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on PSX. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered shares of Phillips 66 from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $132.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, March 27th. Mizuho dropped their price target on Phillips 66 from $150.00 to $147.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Barclays increased their price objective on Phillips 66 from $115.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Wolfe Research raised Phillips 66 from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $143.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Phillips 66 from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Sunday, March 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Phillips 66 currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $146.43.

Phillips 66 Stock Performance

Shares of PSX opened at $98.65 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $40.22 billion, a PE ratio of 19.97, a P/E/G ratio of 4.84 and a beta of 1.17. Phillips 66 has a 52-week low of $95.67 and a 52-week high of $171.41. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $124.24 and a 200-day simple moving average of $125.13. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62.

Phillips 66 (NYSE:PSX) last issued its earnings results on Friday, January 31st. The oil and gas company reported ($0.15) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.23 by ($1.38). Phillips 66 had a net margin of 1.46% and a return on equity of 8.58%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.09 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Phillips 66 will post 6.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Phillips 66 Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 24th were given a dividend of $1.15 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 24th. This represents a $4.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.66%. Phillips 66’s payout ratio is 93.12%.

Phillips 66 Company Profile

Phillips 66 operates as an energy manufacturing and logistics company in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and internationally. It operates through four segments: Midstream, Chemicals, Refining, and Marketing and Specialties (M&S). The Midstream segment transports crude oil and other feedstocks; delivers refined petroleum products to market; provides terminaling and storage services for crude oil and refined petroleum products; transports, stores, fractionates, exports, and markets natural gas liquids; provides other fee-based processing services; and gathers, processes, transports, and markets natural gas.