Rathbones Group PLC Trims Position in SLB Limited $SLB

Rathbones Group PLC decreased its position in shares of SLB Limited (NYSE:SLB) by 3.5% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,817,258 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after selling 66,345 shares during the period. Rathbones Group PLC’s holdings in SLB were worth $62,459,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of SLB. Howard Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in SLB by 3.2% during the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Inc. now owns 9,165 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $315,000 after acquiring an additional 288 shares during the period. Fielder Capital Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of SLB by 2.5% in the third quarter. Fielder Capital Group LLC now owns 12,137 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $417,000 after acquiring an additional 293 shares during the period. Hedges Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of SLB by 0.9% during the third quarter. Hedges Asset Management LLC now owns 35,000 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $1,203,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Gables Capital Management Inc. grew its position in shares of SLB by 31.6% during the third quarter. Gables Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,250 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LRI Investments LLC raised its stake in SLB by 21.7% during the 3rd quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 1,785 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $61,000 after purchasing an additional 318 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 81.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SLB has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on SLB from $43.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 26th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $56.00 price objective on shares of SLB in a research report on Monday, January 26th. Freedom Capital downgraded shares of SLB from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 27th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of SLB in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $50.00 price target on shares of SLB in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $52.96.

SLB Stock Down 1.1%

Shares of SLB opened at $46.86 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $70.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 0.68. SLB Limited has a 1 year low of $31.11 and a 1 year high of $52.45. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $47.73 and its 200-day simple moving average is $40.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 1.33 and a quick ratio of 0.98.

SLB (NYSE:SLB) last posted its earnings results on Friday, January 23rd. The oil and gas company reported $0.78 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.04. SLB had a return on equity of 17.45% and a net margin of 9.45%.The firm had revenue of $9.75 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.54 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.92 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that SLB Limited will post 3.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SLB Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 11th will be given a dividend of $0.295 per share. This represents a $1.18 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.5%. This is an increase from SLB’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.29. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, February 11th. SLB’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.79%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Stephane Biguet sold 61,017 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.70, for a total value of $3,032,544.90. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 155,548 shares in the company, valued at $7,730,735.60. The trade was a 28.17% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director La Chevardiere Patrick De sold 4,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.29, for a total transaction of $201,160.00. Following the sale, the director owned 19,525 shares in the company, valued at $981,912.25. This represents a 17.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 156,902 shares of company stock worth $7,796,666. Insiders own 0.22% of the company’s stock.

SLB Profile

SLB (NYSE: SLB), historically known as Schlumberger, is a leading global provider of technology, integrated project management and information solutions for the energy industry. Founded by Conrad and Marcel Schlumberger in 1926, the company develops and supplies products and services used across the exploration, drilling, completion and production phases of oil and gas development. Its offerings are intended to help operators characterize reservoirs, drill and complete wells, optimize production and manage field operations throughout the asset lifecycle.

SLB’s product and service portfolio spans reservoir characterization and well testing, wireline and logging services, directional drilling and drilling tools, well construction and completion technologies, production systems, and subsea equipment.