Some Investing Thoughts On Hess Corporation (NYSE: HES)

SSgA Funds Management, Inc. has recently announced that it has increased stake in Hess Corporation (NYSE:HES) by 0.86%. After grabbing 18.78 million shares, the institutional investor is now in possession of 0.16 million shares of the Energy Company. The new investment brought the stake of investor firm to 6.07% having worth around $2.65 billion. Moreover, PRIMECAP Management Co. increased its share by 50900.0 to have a control over 9.37 million shares. And Massachusetts Financial Services raised its holdings to 0.8 million shares by acquiring 7.84 million shares or 2.53% of the stake.

Hess Corporation (HES) concluded trading on 12/08/22 at a closing price of $133.44, with 2.14 million shares of worth about $285.05 million changed hands on the day. Half year performance of the stock remained positive as price took a surge of 5.19% during that period and on Thursday the price saw a loss of about -0.99%. Currently the company’s common shares owned by public are about 307.60M shares, out of which, 276.57M shares are available for trading.

According to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), insiders took part in trade of the company’s stock for 122 times over the past 12 months. They bought 790,351 shares in 58 of the transactions. In 64 selling transactions, insiders dumped 1,540,695 shares.

Vanguard Total Stock Market Index, SPDR Series – Energy Select Secto, and Vanguard Mid Cap Index Fund are the top 3 mutual funds which are holding stakes in Hess Corporation Vanguard Total Stock Market Index is currently holding 8.37 million shares of worth totaling $1.18 billion. The company recently came buying 45202.0 shares which brought its stake up to 2.70% of the company’s outstanding shares. SPDR Series – Energy Select Secto bought 857.0 shares, after which its hold over company’s outstanding shares expand to 2.63%, leaving 8.15 million shares with the mutual fund that have a worth of about $1.15 billion. Vanguard Mid Cap Index Fund, after buying 6.51 million shares, have now control over 2.10% of the stake in the company. It holds 80698.0 shares of worth $918.3 million.

Hess Corporation (NYSE: HES) started trading at $138.49, above $3.72 from concluding price of the previous day. However, the stock later moved at a day high price of 138.83, or with a loss of -0.99%. Stock saw a price change of -6.93% in past 5 days and over the past one month there was a price change of -10.01%. Year-to-date (YTD), HES shares are showing a performance of 80.25% which increased to 65.64% when we look at its performance for past 12 months. Over the period of past 52 weeks, stock dropped to lowest price of $68.32 but also hit the highest price of $149.83 during that period. The average intraday trading volume for Hess Corporation shares is 2.15 million. The stock is currently trading -6.62% below its 20-day simple moving average (SMA20), while that difference is down -1.76% for SMA50 and it goes to 14.63% higher than SMA200.

SSgA Funds Management, Inc. acquired 18.78 million shares of Hess Corporation having value of about $2.65 billion. Data submitted at the U.S SEC by SSgA Funds Management, Inc. revealed that the firm now holds 0.16 million shares in the company valued at close to $21317040.0, or have control over 0.86% stake in the company. Hess Corporation (NYSE: HES) currently have 307.60M outstanding shares and institutions hold larger chunk of about 88.50% of that. Holding of mutual funds in the company is about 32.13% while other institutional holders and individual stake holders have control over 56.07% and 10.63% of the stake respectively.

The stock has a current market capitalization of $40.96B and its 3Y-monthly beta is at 1.59. PE ratio of stock for trailing 12 months is 22.20, while it has posted earnings per share of $6.01 in the same period. Its PEG reads 0.34 and has Quick Ratio of 1.70 while making debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12. Volatility of a stock is a metric used to know how much the price of that stock is under influence and for HES, volatility over the week remained 3.87% while standing at 3.44% over the month.

Analysts are in expectations that Hess Corporation (HES) stock would likely to be making an EPS of $2.01 in the current quarter, while forecast for next quarter EPS is $2.4 and it is $9.88 for next year. For the current quarter EPS, analysts have given the company a lowest target $1.38 which is $2.79 at the higher side of the target for the same. When we compare those targets with actual EPS, we find that company posted an EPS of $0.85 in the same quarter a year ago. Stock’s fiscal year EPS is expected to rise by 117.80% while it is estimated to increase by 23.64% in next year. EPS is likely to grow at an annualized rate of 64.99% for next 5-years, compared to annual growth of 15.90% made by the stock over the past 5-years.

Analysts at 27 brokerage firms have issued recommendations for the Hess Corporation (HES)’s stock and average of those rates the stock at a “Moderate Buy” and assign it a score of 2.30. Out of those 27 Wall Street analysts, 11 recommended a “Buy” rating, while 10 were in favor recommending the stock as a “Hold” and 2 analyst recommended the stock as “Sell”.

Digging deeper we find that several firms have released their research notes about the support levels of the stock. Most recent of them is a note released by Jefferies on October 19, 2022 offering a Hold rating for the stock and assigned a target price of $140 to it. Coverage by Citigroup stated Hess Corporation (HES) stock as a Neutral in their note to investors on June 24, 2022, suggesting a price target of $100 for the stock. On May 27, 2021, Tudor Pickering Initiated their recommendations, while on March 31, 2021, Mizuho Upgrade their ratings for the stock with a price target of $94. Stock get a Buy rating from Goldman on March 23, 2021.