Chevron Co. (NYSE:CVX) Increases Dividend to $1.71 Per Share

Chevron Co. (NYSE:CVX) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, January 31st,NASDAQ Dividends reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a dividend of 1.71 per share by the oil and gas company on Monday, March 10th. This represents a $6.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.58%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This is an increase from Chevron’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.63.

Chevron has raised its dividend by an average of 7.1% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 35 consecutive years. Chevron has a dividend payout ratio of 51.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Chevron to earn $11.45 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $6.52 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 56.9%.

Chevron Stock Down 4.5 %

Shares of CVX stock traded down $7.11 on Friday, hitting $149.21. The stock had a trading volume of 16,725,506 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,860,612. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $153.19 and its 200-day moving average is $151.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $268.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.40, a P/E/G ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.12. Chevron has a 52-week low of $135.37 and a 52-week high of $167.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 1.07.

Chevron (NYSE:CVX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 31st. The oil and gas company reported $2.06 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.42 by ($0.36). Chevron had a net margin of 8.44% and a return on equity of 13.15%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.45 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Chevron will post 10.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Chevron news, CEO Michael K. Wirth sold 164,600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.13, for a total transaction of $26,357,398.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 4,280 shares in the company, valued at approximately $685,356.40. The trade was a 97.47 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.20% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on CVX. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Chevron from $171.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on shares of Chevron from $180.00 to $163.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. DZ Bank raised Chevron from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $170.00 price objective for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on Chevron from $170.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their price objective on Chevron from $160.00 to $164.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $175.27.

About Chevron

Chevron Corporation, through its subsidiaries, engages in the integrated energy and chemicals operations in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Upstream and Downstream. The Upstream segment is involved in the exploration, development, production, and transportation of crude oil and natural gas; processing, liquefaction, transportation, and regasification of liquefied natural gas; transportation of crude oil through pipelines; transportation, storage, and marketing of natural gas; and carbon capture and storage, as well as a gas-to-liquids plant.