Prudential Financial Inc. Increases Stake in Ovintiv Inc. $OVV

Prudential Financial Inc. grew its stake in Ovintiv Inc. (NYSE:OVV) by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 257,471 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 3,905 shares during the quarter. Prudential Financial Inc.’s holdings in Ovintiv were worth $9,797,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ovintiv by 3.3% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,423,206 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,302,113,000 after purchasing an additional 959,711 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Ovintiv by 3.4% in the second quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 9,571,397 shares of the company’s stock valued at $364,192,000 after buying an additional 312,827 shares in the last quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Ovintiv by 3.5% in the first quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 8,437,152 shares of the company’s stock worth $361,110,000 after acquiring an additional 284,656 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Ovintiv by 2.6% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,708,987 shares of the company’s stock worth $244,338,000 after acquiring an additional 146,749 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ovintiv by 69.7% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 5,572,732 shares of the company’s stock worth $238,513,000 after acquiring an additional 2,288,989 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.81% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on OVV shares. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Ovintiv from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Ovintiv from $52.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 21st. Roth Capital initiated coverage on Ovintiv in a research note on Monday, October 13th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $42.00 target price for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Ovintiv from $50.00 to $47.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. Finally, William Blair assumed coverage on shares of Ovintiv in a report on Wednesday. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $50.00 price target for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $51.83.

Ovintiv Stock Performance

NYSE OVV opened at $40.87 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a current ratio of 0.43 and a quick ratio of 0.43. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $38.80 and its 200-day simple moving average is $39.46. The company has a market cap of $10.35 billion, a PE ratio of 18.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 1.00. Ovintiv Inc. has a 1-year low of $29.80 and a 1-year high of $46.35.

Ovintiv (NYSE:OVV) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The company reported $1.03 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.97 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $2.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.86 billion. Ovintiv had a return on equity of 14.24% and a net margin of 6.46%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Ovintiv Inc. will post 5.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ovintiv Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 15th will be paid a $0.30 dividend. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 15th. Ovintiv’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 131.87%.

Ovintiv Company Profile

Ovintiv Inc, together with its subsidiaries, explores, develops, produces, and markets natural gas, oil, and natural gas liquids in the United States and Canada. The company operates through USA Operations, Canadian Operations, and Market Optimization segments. Its principal assets include Permian in west Texas and Anadarko in west-central Oklahoma; and Montney in northeast British Columbia and northwest Alberta.