Company Update: ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) – Chevron plans to slash budget to save cash for dividend

[Reuters] – Oil and gas major Chevron Corp will slash its capital budget by as much as 36 percent in 2017 and 2018, a cash-saving bid to preserve its 90-year-old dividend as it copes with crude prices near 10-year lows. Already, Noble Energy Inc, ConocoPhillips and Anadarko Petroleum Corp have done so. Chevron’s dividend, like that of rival Exxon Mobil Corp , is considered near-sacrosanct by retail investors and wealth managers alike, being a steady source of cash in a time of low interest rates and stagnant wages. Read more on this. ConocoPhillips (COP) , valued at $48.03B, started the session at $41.20. Looking at today’s market, COP one day range is $38.56 to $41.25 and has traded between $31.05 and $69.72 over the past 12 months. COP shares are currently priced at -21.79x this year’s forecasted earnings, which makes them relatively inexpensive compared to the industry’s 2.97x forward p/e ratio. The company pays shareholders $1.00 per share annually in dividends, yielding 2.43%. In a review of the consensus earnings estimate this quarter, 17 sell-side analysts are looking at $-0.82 per share, which would be $0.00 better than the year-ago quarter and a $0.00 sequential increase. In looking at the bigger picture, the full-year EPS estimate of $-1.90 would be a $0.50 worse when compared to the previous year’s annual results. The quarterly earnings estimate is based on a consensus revenue forecast of the current quarter of $7.65 Billion. If realized, that would be a 4.38% decrease over the year-ago quarter. In terms of ratings, Scotia Howard Weil downgraded COP from Sector Outperform to Sector Perform (Feb 5, 2016). Previously, Societe Generale downgraded COP from Buy to Hold. The average price target for COP shares is $44.14, which is 7.14% above where the stock opened this morning. See more in (NYSE:COP) Similar Articles: Company Update (NYSE:APC): Chevron plans to slash budget to save cash for dividend Stock Update (NYSE:CVX): Chevron plans to slash budget in next two years to save cash Market Update: ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) – ConocoPhillips to Present at Bank of America Merrill Lynch 2015 Global Energy Conference