Exxon Mobil shares close higher on Tuesday, Barclays upgrades the stock from Equal Weight to Overweight

Barclays has upgraded Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM) from Equal Weight to Overweight with a price target of $94, citing recent under-performance of the stock against peers as well as the firms “leading near-term position” in the low commodity price environment.

Exxon Mobil shares closed higher for the second time in the past five trading sessions on Tuesday. The stock went up 0.55% ($0.44) to $80.60, after touching an intraday high at $80.75, or a price level not seen since July 6th ($81.08). In the week ended on July 9th the shares of the energy company lost 0.63% of their market value compared to a week ago, which marked a third consecutive period of decline, but yet, it has been the smallest decrease since the week ended on May 28th. However, the stock has pared its loss to 0.16% so far during the current month, following a 0.29% surge in June. The latter has been the first gain out of three months. For the entire past year, the shares of the NYSE-listed energy giant gained 15.79%.

“The high-$70s to low-$80s recent share price range reflects a durable support level from a fundamental and technical perspective”, Barclays said, cited by Seeking Alpha.

The firm also said that Exxons current dividend yield was over 1.8 times above that of S&P 500, or an occurrence which had been observed in approximately 5% of trading days in the past 26 years.

In regard to Exxons share price-net asset value relation, Barclays noted that the stock was at its lowest relative position to its peer group since the beginning of the oil price downturn in 2014.

According to CNN Money, the 24 analysts, offering 12-month forecasts regarding Exxon Mobil’s stock price, have a median target of $86.00, with a high estimate of $105.00 and a low estimate of $70.00. The median estimate is a 6.70% surge compared to the closing price of $80.60 on July 11th.

The same media also reported that 15 out of 28 surveyed investment analysts had rated Exxon Mobil’s stock as “Hold”, while 7 – as “Buy”. On the other hand, 6 analysts had recommended selling the stock.

Daily and Weekly Pivot Levels

With the help of the Camarilla calculation method, today’s levels of importance for the Exxon Mobil stock are presented as follows:

R1 – $80.67
R2 – $80.73
R3 (Range Resistance – Sell) – $80.80
R4 (Long Breakout) – $80.99
R5 (Breakout Target 1) – $81.22
R6 (Breakout Target 2) – $81.31

S1 – $80.53
S2 – $80.47
S3 (Range Support – Buy) – $80.40
S4 (Short Breakout) – $80.21
S5 (Breakout Target 1) – $79.98
S6 (Breakout Target 2) – $79.89

By using the traditional method of calculation, the weekly levels of importance for Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM) are presented as follows:

Central Pivot Point – $80.84
R1 – $81.87
R2 – $83.52
R3 – $84.55
R4 – $85.58

S1 – $79.19
S2 – $78.16
S3 – $76.51
S4 – $74.86