Jeffrey Ubben, a director at Exxon Mobil (XOM), recently added 458,000 shares. The buy increased his stake by 19 percent, and came to a total cost of $48.97 million.
The director was the last insider to buy shares, with a purchase in August 2022 of 1 million shares, coming to $88.45 million. Otherwise, company insiders have been modest sellers of shares over the psat year, exclusively at the VP level.
Overall, Exxon insiders own just under 0.1 percent of shares.
The oil giant’s shares have traded in a range year-to-date, as energy prices have also fluctuated at a smaller rate compared to the jump in 2022.
Another result of the sideways energy market is that operations have slowed, with revenue growth dropping by 27 percent over the past year. However, shares are reasonably valued, even if energy prices continue to trade sideways for some time.
Action to take: Long-term investors may want to consider Exxon at current prices or on any drop. Shares yield 3.4 percent and pay a growing dividend yield. And the stock is reasonably priced at about 12 times forward earnings.
For traders, shares look likely to start trending toward the higher end of their range. The October $115 calls, last going for $1.90, offer mid-to-high double-digit returns on a move higher for shares in the coming two months.
Disclosure: The author of this article has no position in the company mentioned here, but may trade after the next 72 hours. The author receives no compensation from any of the companies mentioned in this article.