RFG Bristol Wealth Advisors LLC Invests $562,000 in Hess Co. (NYSE:HES)

RFG Bristol Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Hess Co. (NYSE:HES) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 4,226 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock, valued at approximately $562,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. J.Safra Asset Management Corp purchased a new position in shares of Hess during the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Sierra Ocean LLC bought a new position in Hess during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Groupama Asset Managment grew its holdings in Hess by 22.7% during the 3rd quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 22,606 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 4,186 shares in the last quarter. Millstone Evans Group LLC purchased a new position in Hess during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Finally, Rialto Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Hess in the 4th quarter worth approximately $37,000. 88.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Hess news, CEO John B. Hess sold 175,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $159.30, for a total value of $27,877,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,384,679 shares in the company, valued at approximately $379,879,364.70. This represents a 6.84 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 9.76% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

HES has been the subject of a number of research reports. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Hess from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the company from $151.00 to $193.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Hess in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Hess from $185.00 to $186.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Pickering Energy Partners raised shares of Hess to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on Hess from $145.00 to $163.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $170.60.

Hess Trading Up 1.0 %

HES opened at $161.32 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a current ratio of 1.12. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $148.21 and its 200-day moving average price is $142.46. Hess Co. has a one year low of $123.79 and a one year high of $163.98. The stock has a market cap of $49.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.92 and a beta of 1.21.

Hess (NYSE:HES) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The oil and gas producer reported $1.76 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.44 by $0.32. Hess had a return on equity of 26.32% and a net margin of 21.27%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Hess Co. will post 8.08 EPS for the current year.

Hess Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 17th were given a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 17th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.24%. Hess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 22.22%.

Hess Profile

Hess Corporation, an exploration and production company, explores, develops, produces, purchases, transports, and sells crude oil, natural gas liquids (NGLs), and natural gas. The company operates in two segments, Exploration and Production, and Midstream. It conducts production operations primarily in the United States, Guyana, the Malaysia/Thailand Joint Development Area, and Malaysia; and exploration activities principally offshore Guyana, the U.S.