Why Should You Put Callon Petroleum Company (NYSE: CPE) On Your Portfolio?

BlackRock Fund Advisors recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Callon Petroleum Company (NYSE:CPE). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Energy company by 7.24% to 7.56 million shares with purchase of 0.51 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 12.27% valued currently at $293.03 million. In addition, The Vanguard Group, Inc. raised its holdings by 0.12 million to 6.59 million shares. And SSgA Funds Management, Inc. has lifted its position by 23.49% or 0.86 million shares – to 4.51 million shares.

With over 2.18 million Callon Petroleum Company (CPE) shares trading Tuesday and a closing price of $34.10 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $74.32 million. The shares have shown a negative half year performance of -21.79% and its price on 03/14/23 lost nearly -1.53%. Currently, there are 61.61M common shares owned by the public and among those 60.38M shares have been available to trade.

An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 16 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for CPE have a consensus price objective of $55.50. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $70.00 and a low of $43.00. The average price target is 38.65% above its recent price level and an upside to the estimated low will see the stock gain 20.7% over that period. But an upside of 51.29% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $54.50.

Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 96 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 28 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 130,896 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 68 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 23,215,258 shares.

The top 3 mutual fund holders in Callon Petroleum Company are iShares Core S&P Small Cap ETF, SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration &, and Vanguard Total Stock Market Index. iShares Core S&P Small Cap ETF owns 3.89 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $150.75 million. The company bought an additional 8632.0 shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 6.31% of the shares outstanding. SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & sold 4085.0 shares to see its total holdings shrink to 2.22 million shares valued at over $85.99 million and representing 3.60% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index bought 21992.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 1.89 million shares at a value of $73.22 million. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index now owns shares totaling to 3.07% of the shares outstanding.

Shares of Callon Petroleum Company (NYSE: CPE) opened at $34.93, up $0.3 from a prior closing price of $34.63. However, the script later moved the day high at 36.20, down -1.53%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -13.87% and -0.29% over the past three months. CPE shares are trading -8.06% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance down to -41.91% lower. It has a 12-month low price of $31.23 and touched a high of $66.48 over the same period. CPE has an average intraday trading volume of 1.25 million shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by -11.63%, -13.28%, and -18.34% respectively.

Institutional ownership of Callon Petroleum Company (NYSE: CPE) shares accounts for 86.80% of the company’s 61.61M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 36.31%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 44.38% and 23.61% respectively.

It has a market capitalization of $2.15B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 2.78. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 1.74, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $19.55. The company has a PEG of 0.07 and a Quick Ratio of 0.40 with the debt-to-equity ratio at 0.73. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 6.61% over the week and 5.15% over the month.

Analysts forecast that Callon Petroleum Company (CPE) will achieve an EPS of $3.46 for the current quarter, $2.94 for the next quarter and $13.18 for 2023. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $3.24 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $3.72. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $2.66 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 169.30%, and 7.35% over the next financial year. EPS should shrink at an annualized rate of 25.00% over the next five years, compared to 28.40% over the past 5-year period.

If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 16 brokerage firm advisors rate Callon Petroleum Company (CPE) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.60. Specifically, 6 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 9 of the 16 advise that investors “hold,” and 1 rated it as a “Sell.”

Looking at the support for the CPE, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. Mizuho stated their Buy rating for the stock in a research note on January 10, 2023, with the firm’s price target at $59. JP Morgan coverage for the Callon Petroleum Company (CPE) stock in a research note released on December 05, 2022 offered a Neutral rating with a price target of $57. KeyBanc Capital Markets was of a view on September 20, 2022 that the stock is Sector Weight, while RBC Capital Mkts gave the stock Outperform rating on July 06, 2022, issuing a price target of $75. ROTH Capital on their part issued Buy rating on April 18, 2022.