Chevron Corp. Stock , CVX

The name “Chevron” had been used by the company as a popular brand since the 1930s. On March 5th, 1984, Socal took over Gulf Oil Corp. in a merger worth $13.3 billion. The legal name “Chevron Corporation” was born. The company became the largest refiner of the United States and dominated the market of gas liquids. By the end of 1984, Chevron stock price closed, adjusted for splits, at $7.81. The merger had positive effects on the business and CVX stock price was on the rise. On December 31st, 1986, Chevron stock price closed at $11.34, thus increasing by 45.20% year-over-year.

Chevron stock price continued to climb and peaked at $20.00 on August 20th, 1990. However, oversupply and recession brought bearish markets for the oil industry. Chevron stock price tumbled to $15.25 on March 2nd, 1992. Chevron overcame these difficulties by launching more and more international projects, seizing oil extraction opportunities in Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Angola, and the North Sea. Production amounting up to more than 1 million barrels a day, Chevron’s earnings reached an all-time high of $2.6 billion in 1996. In the 2000s, however, the company had to turn to more remote oil fields because extraction of oil became more and more difficult. Between 2002 and 2007, earnings were nearly $72 billion, but the company had to invest almost the same amount. The impressive success rate of 42% for exploration wells between 2002 and 2007 could not be matched by any of Chevron’s competitors.

Mergers and acquisitions have been an important factor throughout the company’s history. On October 9th, 2001, the $45 billion merger between Chevron and Texaco was approved, forming the ChevronTexaco Corp. The new company’s refining capacity of 2.4 million barrels per day and reserves of more than 11 billion barrels of oil made it the second largest U.S.-based energy company. It is since that time that Chevron’s stock began being traded under the ticker symbol “CVX” at NYSE, the old “CHV” stocks being exchanged 1:1.

The year 2005 brought not only the acquisition of Unocal Corp. for $18.4 billion on August 10th, 2005, but also a name change. The company has been bearing the name of Chevron Corporation ever since. This merger reinforced Chevron’s market position. Upon the end of trading on the day of the merger, CVX stock was worth $62.48. In subsequent years, Chevron stock price has been through the roof.

Chevron joined the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 2008. It was the first change to the blue-chip stock index in almost four years.

Today, Chevron is among the leaders in its peer group, although 2016 ended on a net loss of $431 million, while revenues amounted to $110.2 billion. However, the dividend of $4.29 in 2016 and a recent surge in Chevron stock price are positive indicators for analysts. Chevron stock price rocketed by 37.6% within two years, climbing from $87.28 on December 7th, 2015, to $119.63 on December 7th, 2017. Future energy demand will be much higher than today’s. Therefore, Chevron stock remains a highly interesting investment opportunity of energy stocks.