Chevron was ordered to cease operations in Venezuela
Chevron (NYSE:CVX), the last major U.S oil company still operating in Venezuela, is higher this morning after the U.S. Treasury Department issued the oil giant a new license, giving the company until Dec. 1 to end its joint ventures in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Country (OPEC). This will bar Chevron from drilling wells, selling and buying crude oil or oil products and/or transporting them. Despite this, CVX was last seen trading up 3.8% at $84.75.
On the charts, CVX is staring up at its 50-day moving average, a long-term ceiling for the shares. However, the equity remains healthily above its late-March bottom of $51.60.
Analysts covering CVX are mostly optimistic, with 13 out of 15 rating it a “buy” or better. Plus, the consensus 12-month price target of $90 is a solid 6.4% premium to current levels.
In the options pits, CVX sports a 10-day put/call volume ratio of 1.54 at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), that sits in the 97th percentile of its annual range. This suggests the appetite for long puts is much healthier as of late.