Imperial Oil Swings Back To Profit In 1Q, Raises Dividend; Shares Pop 4%

Imperial Oil (IMO) shares rose more than 4% Friday after the Canadian petroleum company posted a profit in the first quarter, helped by recovering oil prices.

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Imperial Oil’s revenue came in at nearly C$7 billion for the quarter ended March 31, up from C$6.69 billion in the prior-year quarter. 1Q 2021 net income was C$392 million (C$0.53 per share), compared to a loss of C$188 million (C$0.25 per share) in the same period last year.

Production averaged 432,000 gross oil-equivalent barrels per day. It’s the company’s highest 1Q production in 30 years and up from 419,000 barrels per day in 1Q 2020.

Imperial Oil raised its quarterly dividend by almost 23%, from C$0.22 to C$0.27 per share. (See Imperial Oil stock analysis on TipRanks.)

Imperial Oil’s Chairman, President, and CEO Brad Corson said, “Imperial took decisive actions to weather the economic storm throughout 2020, including making fundamental improvements to its cost structure and continuing to progress key projects to ensure the company was well-positioned to take full advantage of market conditions as they began to improve. The benefits of this approach underpin our strong performance this quarter. I am extremely proud of our ability to deliver these results while also meeting our commitments to the care of our people, communities, and the environment.”

Earlier this week, Goldman Sachs analyst Neil Mehta maintained a Buy rating on the stock with a price target of $29.33 (C$36.00) with a 2.4% upside potential.

Overall, the consensus on the Street is that IMO is a Hold based on 3 Buys, 8 Holds, and 1 Sell. The average analyst price target of C$34.83 implies a potential downside of approximately 1% from current levels. Shares have jumped by more than 45% year-to-date.