Cenovus Energy Inc. (NYSE:CVE – Get Rating) (TSE:CVE) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock investors acquired 35,553 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 329% compared to the average volume of 8,284 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Park Place Capital Corp boosted its stake in Cenovus Energy by 20.1% during the first quarter. Park Place Capital Corp now owns 4,170 shares of the oil and gas company's stock worth $73,000 after buying an additional 698 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Cenovus Energy by 80.9% during the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 403,220 shares of the oil and gas company's stock valued at $7,040,000 after purchasing an additional 180,298 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cenovus Energy during the first quarter valued at $420,000. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cenovus Energy by 10.3% during the first quarter. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC now owns 34,462 shares of the oil and gas company's stock valued at $602,000 after purchasing an additional 3,213 shares during the period. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Cenovus Energy by 3.9% during the first quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 4,139,257 shares of the oil and gas company's stock valued at $72,176,000 after purchasing an additional 153,569 shares during the period. 49.27% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. CIBC decreased their target price on shares of Cenovus Energy from C$32.00 to C$31.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 17th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Cenovus Energy in a research note on Thursday, March 16th. They set a "hold" rating on the stock. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on shares of Cenovus Energy from C$33.00 to C$32.00 in a research note on Friday, February 17th. National Bank Financial raised their target price on shares of Cenovus Energy from C$36.00 to C$39.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 11th. Finally, Scotiabank cut shares of Cenovus Energy from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Friday, April 14th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $31.33.

Cenovus Energy Trading Down 6.1 %

CVE stock opened at $15.46 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $17.48 and a 200 day moving average price of $18.68. Cenovus Energy has a fifty-two week low of $14.44 and a fifty-two week high of $24.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.63. The firm has a market cap of $29.50 billion, a PE ratio of 7.43 and a beta of 2.23.

Cenovus Energy (NYSE:CVE – Get Rating) (TSE:CVE) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 16th. The oil and gas company reported $0.29 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.48 by ($0.19). Cenovus Energy had a net margin of 8.75% and a return on equity of 20.38%. The business had revenue of $10.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $9.77 billion. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Cenovus Energy will post 1.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cenovus Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.104 per share. This represents a $0.42 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.69%. This is a positive change from Cenovus Energy's previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 14th. Cenovus Energy's payout ratio is presently 19.71%.

Cenovus Energy Company Profile

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Cenovus Energy, Inc is a Canadian-based integrated energy company, which engages in the provision of gas and oil. It operates through the following segments: Oil Sands, Conventional, Offshore, Canadian Manufacturing, U.S. Manufacturing, and Corporate and Eliminations. The Oil Sands segment is involved in the development and production of bitumen and heavy oil in northern Alberta and Saskatchewan.

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