1,333 Shares in Hess Co. (NYSE:HES) Acquired by Headlands Technologies LLC

Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in Hess Co. (NYSE:HES) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 1,333 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock, valued at approximately $177,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in HES. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in shares of Hess by 58.9% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,753,126 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $509,675,000 after purchasing an additional 1,391,311 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in Hess by 46.3% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,930,509 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $389,787,000 after purchasing an additional 927,093 shares in the last quarter. Erste Asset Management GmbH acquired a new stake in Hess in the fourth quarter worth approximately $47,056,000. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS acquired a new position in shares of Hess during the 4th quarter valued at $42,158,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Hess by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 33,141,244 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $4,408,117,000 after buying an additional 296,406 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 88.51% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Hess

In other Hess news, CEO John B. Hess sold 175,000 shares of Hess stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.30, for a total transaction of $27,877,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,384,679 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $379,879,364.70. This trade represents a 6.84 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 9.76% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on HES. StockNews.com initiated coverage on Hess in a report on Thursday. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Hess from $185.00 to $186.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Pickering Energy Partners raised shares of Hess to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Hess from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $151.00 to $193.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Hess currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $170.60.

Hess Trading Down 9.8 %

Hess stock opened at $133.89 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.88 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $148.37 and a 200 day moving average price of $142.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a current ratio of 1.12. Hess Co. has a 52 week low of $123.79 and a 52 week high of $163.98.

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

Hess Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Monday, March 17th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.49%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 17th. Hess’s dividend payout ratio is currently 22.22%.

About Hess

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.