MeadowBrook Investment Advisors LLC Invests $155,000 in Valero Energy Co. (NYSE:VLO)

MeadowBrook Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Valero Energy Co. (NYSE:VLO) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 1,190 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock, valued at approximately $155,000.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VLO. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Valero Energy by 12,883.3% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,047,360 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $136,157,000 after acquiring an additional 1,039,293 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Valero Energy by 94.4% during the 3rd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 1,429,706 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $202,585,000 after purchasing an additional 694,224 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley raised its position in Valero Energy by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 8,961,603 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $1,269,949,000 after purchasing an additional 517,068 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Valero Energy by 14.0% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 2,788,994 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $362,569,000 after buying an additional 342,218 shares during the period. Finally, AustralianSuper Pty Ltd grew its position in shares of Valero Energy by 36.4% during the fourth quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd now owns 938,771 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $122,040,000 after buying an additional 250,326 shares in the last quarter. 78.69% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on VLO shares. Mizuho downgraded shares of Valero Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $150.00 to $173.00 in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Valero Energy from $171.00 to $184.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Raymond James increased their target price on shares of Valero Energy from $154.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Barclays dropped their price objective on Valero Energy from $179.00 to $173.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 30th. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their price target on Valero Energy from $138.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $174.40.

Valero Energy Stock Performance

NYSE VLO traded up $1.40 on Monday, hitting $158.24. 2,127,995 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,261,714. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 1.59 and a quick ratio of 1.10. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $163.15 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $141.82. The firm has a market cap of $51.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.84, a P/E/G ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.55. Valero Energy Co. has a fifty-two week low of $105.49 and a fifty-two week high of $184.79.

Valero Energy (NYSE:VLO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The oil and gas company reported $3.82 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.18 by $0.64. Valero Energy had a net margin of 5.01% and a return on equity of 24.82%. The firm had revenue of $31.76 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $32.02 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $8.27 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 12.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Valero Energy Co. will post 18.02 EPS for the current year.

About Valero Energy

Valero Energy Corporation manufactures, markets, and sells petroleum-based and low-carbon liquid transportation fuels and petrochemical products in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Latin America, Mexico, Peru, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Refining, Renewable Diesel, and Ethanol.