Cullen Investment Group LTD. Increases Stock Position in Exxon Mobil Co. (NYSE:XOM)

Cullen Investment Group LTD. grew its stake in shares of Exxon Mobil Co. (NYSE:XOM) by 4.0% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 57,646 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after buying an additional 2,201 shares during the quarter. Exxon Mobil makes up 0.9% of Cullen Investment Group LTD.’s holdings, making the stock its 28th biggest holding. Cullen Investment Group LTD.’s holdings in Exxon Mobil were worth $6,201,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Fairway Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Exxon Mobil during the 2nd quarter worth $35,000. Fairscale Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Exxon Mobil during the 2nd quarter worth $39,000. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in Exxon Mobil during the 2nd quarter worth $46,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Exxon Mobil during the 3rd quarter worth $51,000. Finally, Highline Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Exxon Mobil during the 3rd quarter worth $54,000. 61.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Exxon Mobil from $118.00 to $120.00 in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $115.00 price objective on shares of Exxon Mobil in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Exxon Mobil from $142.00 to $140.00 in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Exxon Mobil from $135.00 to $136.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Exxon Mobil from $130.00 to $125.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, December 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Exxon Mobil currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $128.84.

Exxon Mobil Price Performance

XOM opened at $109.68 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $482.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.65 and a beta of 0.91. Exxon Mobil Co. has a fifty-two week low of $95.77 and a fifty-two week high of $126.34. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $113.12 and its 200 day moving average price is $115.58. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 1st. The oil and gas company reported $1.92 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.91 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $90.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.98 billion. Exxon Mobil had a net margin of 9.61% and a return on equity of 14.73%. Exxon Mobil’s quarterly revenue was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.27 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Exxon Mobil Co. will post 7.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Exxon Mobil Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 14th were paid a dividend of $0.99 per share. This is a positive change from Exxon Mobil’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.95. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 14th. This represents a $3.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.61%. Exxon Mobil’s dividend payout ratio is 49.32%.

Exxon Mobil Company Profile

Exxon Mobil Corporation engages in the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas in the United States and internationally. It operates through Upstream, Energy Products, Chemical Products, and Specialty Products segments. The Upstream segment explores for and produces crude oil and natural gas.