More important, John Hess (CEO) bought about $18M (!) worth of stock on the open market in the past year (#msg-75235512, #msg-67051212) and has been joined by other insiders (#msg-75705739).
HES recently changed its business model to emphasize production of shale oil from the Bakken in North Dakota (the basin that is largely responsible for the upturn in overall US production) and to deemphasize wildcat drilling and refining (#msg-78327528).
If the Hess family decided to sell, I’m pretty sure there would be several bidders for the company at a substantial premium. I’ll be surprised if HES is still an independent company in five years.