Bessemer Group Inc. Sells 8,381 Shares of Cenovus Energy Inc. (NYSE:CVE)

Bessemer Group Inc. lessened its position in shares of Cenovus Energy Inc. (NYSE:CVE) (TSE:CVE) by 59.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,665 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after selling 8,381 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc.’s holdings in Cenovus Energy were worth $85,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Cenovus Energy by 29.2% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,287,334 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $128,783,000 after buying an additional 1,873,415 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Cenovus Energy by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,043,884 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $121,865,000 after purchasing an additional 276,023 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its holdings in shares of Cenovus Energy by 4.9% in the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 5,226,155 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $79,176,000 after purchasing an additional 245,302 shares during the last quarter. Amundi lifted its position in shares of Cenovus Energy by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 4,678,976 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $71,775,000 after purchasing an additional 77,548 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alberta Investment Management Corp boosted its holdings in Cenovus Energy by 10.1% during the fourth quarter. Alberta Investment Management Corp now owns 4,494,400 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $68,094,000 after purchasing an additional 411,000 shares during the last quarter. 51.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on CVE. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $25.00 price target on shares of Cenovus Energy in a research report on Friday, April 11th. StockNews.com lowered Cenovus Energy from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, December 28th. National Bank Financial downgraded Cenovus Energy from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Scotiabank upgraded Cenovus Energy to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Cenovus Energy in a research note on Tuesday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Cenovus Energy presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $29.00.

Cenovus Energy Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CVE opened at $12.12 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.59, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The company has a market capitalization of $22.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.01 and a beta of 1.46. Cenovus Energy Inc. has a 12 month low of $10.23 and a 12 month high of $21.58. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $13.35 and a 200-day moving average of $14.92.

Cenovus Energy (NYSE:CVE) (TSE:CVE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The oil and gas company reported $0.05 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.32 by ($0.27). The company had revenue of $8.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.08 billion. Cenovus Energy had a net margin of 5.82% and a return on equity of 10.73%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Cenovus Energy Inc. will post 1.49 EPS for the current year.

Cenovus Energy Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a dividend of $0.1269 per share. This represents a $0.51 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.19%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. Cenovus Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 40.50%.

Cenovus Energy Profile

Cenovus Energy Inc, together with its subsidiaries, develops, produces, refines, transports, and markets crude oil, natural gas, and refined petroleum products in Canada and internationally. The company operates through Oil Sands, Conventional, Offshore, Canadian Refining, and U.S. Refining segments.