Analyst: Buy Chevron Stock After Earnings

CVX jumped last Friday on an impressive earnings report

The shares of Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) are trading up 3.3% at $118.01, after the Dow stock received a pair of bullish brokerage notes over the weekend. While Credit Suisse upgraded CVX stock to "outperform" from "neutral" -- citing "compelling" valuation -- Berenberg raised its Chevron price target to $140 from $135, representing expected upside of 22% to Friday's close at $114.73.

It's been a volatile stretch for CVX, based on its 30-day historical volatility of 29.1%, which ranks in the 92nd annual percentile. More specifically, the oil stock plunged 15.7% from its Oct. 10 peak at $127.60 to its Oct. 29 low at $107.54. Chevron is now trading near a 38.2% Fibonacci retracement of this recent plunge, thanks in part to last Friday's 3.2% post-earnings pop.

Even with the shares still in the red on a year-to-date basis, the majority of the 16 analysts covering Chevron maintain a "buy" rating, with not a single "sell" on the books. Plus, the average 12-month price target of $146.23 is a 27% premium to current trading levels.

Elsewhere, short interest hit a three-year low of 16.66 million shares on Sept. 15. While the number of bearish bets rose 6.4% over the two most recent reporting periods, the 17.73 million shares still represents less than 1% of CVX's available float.