Hess Corporation (NYSE: HES) stock jumped 3.01% on Friday to $112.47 against a previous-day closing price of $109.18. With 2.05 million shares changed hands, the volume of the stock remained lighter than its average volume of 2.45 million shares. During the session, the Oil & Gas E&P company that operates in wider Energy sector, reached to the highest price of $113.58 whereas the lowest price it dropped to was $109.43. The 52-week range on HES shows that it touched its highest point at $131.43 and its lowest point at $61.93 during that stretch. It currently has a 1-year price target of $133.43. With its current market cap of 33.20 billion, HES has annualized dividend of $1.50 while the current yield stands at 1.33%. Beta for the stock currently stands at 1.63.
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Price Performance and Earnings:
Stock performance is one of the indicators that investors use to determine whether they will profit from a stock. The price performance of HES was up-trending over the past week, with a rise of 10.93%, but this was up by 2.87% over a month. Three-month performance surged to 6.96% while six-month performance rose 25.41%. The stock gained 44.82% in the past year, while it has gained 51.92% so far this year. A look at the trailing 12-month EPS for HES yields 4.71 with Next year EPS estimates of 11.60. For the next quarter, that number is 2.78. This implies an EPS growth rate of 117.80% for this year and 25.90% for next year. EPS is expected to grow by 67.77% annually over the next five years; however, over the past five years, the company experienced an annual growth rate of 15.90%.
Float and Shares Shorts:
At present, 308.90 million HES shares are outstanding with a float of 279.36 million shares on hand for trading. On Jul 14, 2022, short shares totaled 6.23 million, which was 2.00% higher than short shares on Jun 14, 2022. In addition to Mr. John B. Hess as the firm’s CEO & Director, Mr. John P. Rielly serves as its Exec. VP & CFO.
Institutional Ownership:
Through their ownership of 86.83% of HES’s outstanding shares, institutional investors have majority control over the company. Other institutions hold 54.66% of HES, in contrast to 30.96% held by mutual funds. Shares owned by individuals account for 10.59%. As the largest shareholder in HES with 13.15% of the stake, Fidelity Management & Research Co holds 40,943,732 shares worth 40,943,732. A second-largest stockholder of HES, The Vanguard Group, Inc., holds 29,876,092 shares, controlling over 9.60% of the firm’s shares. SSgA Funds Management, Inc. is the third largest shareholder in HES, holding 19,149,066 shares or 6.15% stake. With a 2.65% stake in HES, the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index is the largest stakeholder. A total of 8,261,338 shares are owned by the mutual fund manager. The SPDR Series – Energy Select Secto, which owns about 2.44% of HES stock, is the second-largest Mutual Fund holder. It holds 7,608,880 shares valued at 806.08 million. Vanguard Mid Cap Index Fund holds 2.07% of the stake in HES, owning 6,449,675 shares worth 683.28 million.
An Overview of Recent Financials:
Understanding a company as a customer does not mean you will understand it as an investor. The wise investor uses quantitative research to analyze metrics such as revenue, net income, and earnings. In its fiscal quarter reported on Jun 29, 2022, HES reported revenue of $2.96B and operating income of $1.17B. It generated $667.00M net income for the quarter, which came to $1.46B over the last twelve months. The EBITDA in the recently reported quarter was $1.59B and diluted EPS was $2.14. EBITDA for the full year was $4.59B.
Analysts Ratings:
Reading analyst opinions is an effective way to decide where to invest, and there are several opinions available for HES since 25 analysts follow the stock currently. There are 11 analysts who recommend BUY ratings, while 0 suggest SELL ratings. Of the remaining analysts, 9 believe that the stock is worth HOLDING, 4 give it an OVERWEIGHT rating, and 1 thinks that it’s UNDERWEIGHT. In the same way, a target price assigned to a stock can also reveal much about its potential. With HES analysts setting a high price target of $165.00 and a low target of $105.00, the average target price over the next 12 months is $133.45. Based on these targets, HES could surge 46.71% to reach the target high and fall by -6.64% to reach the target low. Reaching the average price target will result in a growth of 18.65% from current levels.
EPS: Estimates vs Actual
It is also common to use earnings estimates to evaluate a firm’s growth potential and to determine trading strategy. HES will report FY 2022 earnings on 01/25/2023. Analysts have provided yearly estimates in a range of $14.54 being high and $6.53 being low. For HES, this leads to a yearly average estimate of $9.17. The earnings surprise of a firm occurs when the actual results change from the consensus earnings estimate. Hess Corporation surprised analysts by $0.01 when it reported $2.15 EPS against a consensus estimate of $2.14. The surprise factor in the prior quarter was $0.18. Based on analyst estimates, the high estimate for the next quarter is $4.92 and the low estimate is $1.45. The average estimate for the next quarter is thus $2.76.
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Summary of Insider Activity:
Insiders traded HES stock several times over the past three months with 3 Buys and 2 Sells. In these transactions, 37,135 shares were bought while 36,260 shares were sold. The number of buy transactions has increased to 53 while that of sell transactions has risen to 57 over the past year. The total number of shares bought during that period was 696,893 while 1,418,216 shares were sold.
