Morgan Stanley set a $19.00 price objective on Encana (NYSE:ECA) (TSE:ECA) in a report published on Friday morning. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the oil and gas company’s stock.
A number of other equities analysts have also recently commented on ECA. ValuEngine raised shares of Encana from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 27th. Zacks Investment Research raised shares of Encana from a hold rating to a buy rating and set a $16.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, August 3rd. Canaccord Genuity reissued a buy rating and issued a $19.00 price target on shares of Encana in a research note on Thursday, July 12th. BMO Capital Markets reissued a buy rating and issued a $18.00 price target on shares of Encana in a research note on Thursday. Finally, CIBC assumed coverage on shares of Encana in a research note on Friday, October 5th. They issued a neutral rating for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, twenty have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Encana has an average rating of Buy and an average target price of $16.30.
Get Encana alerts:ECA stock traded down $0.04 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $11.29. The company had a trading volume of 15,512,828 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,882,944. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 0.73 and a quick ratio of 0.73. Encana has a 1 year low of $9.79 and a 1 year high of $14.31. The stock has a market cap of $12.51 billion, a PE ratio of 26.26, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 2.02.
Encana (NYSE:ECA) (TSE:ECA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 1st. The oil and gas company reported $0.21 EPS for the quarter, topping the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.12 by $0.09. Encana had a net margin of 1.49% and a return on equity of 7.30%. The business had revenue of $983.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.14 billion. On average, research analysts expect that Encana will post 0.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.
The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 14th were issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.31%. This is a positive change from Encana’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.02. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 13th. Encana’s payout ratio is presently 13.95%.
A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Hexavest Inc. raised its holdings in Encana by 25.6% in the 3rd quarter. Hexavest Inc. now owns 1,408,003 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $18,442,000 after purchasing an additional 286,868 shares in the last quarter. Manning & Napier Group LLC bought a new position in Encana in the 3rd quarter worth $262,000. Fox Run Management L.L.C. bought a new position in Encana in the 3rd quarter worth $196,000. HRT Financial LLC bought a new position in Encana in the 2nd quarter worth $228,000. Finally, Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio bought a new position in Encana in the 2nd quarter worth $1,917,000. Institutional investors own 66.82% of the company’s stock.
Encana Company Profile
Encana Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the exploration, development, production, and marketing of natural gas, oil, and natural gas liquids. The company holds interests in various assets, including the Montney in northern British Columbia and northwest Alberta; Duvernay in west central Alberta; and other upstream operations comprising Wheatland in southern Alberta, Horn River in northeast British Columbia, and Deep Panuke located in offshore Nova Scotia in Canada.
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