Transocean Ltd. (NYSE:RIG) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

Transocean Ltd. (NYSE:RIG) has received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the ten research firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $5.75.

RIG has been the topic of a number of research reports. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Transocean from $4.50 to $4.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Susquehanna cut their target price on shares of Transocean from $7.00 to $6.50 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 1st. TD Cowen cut their target price on shares of Transocean from $6.50 to $5.50 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Benchmark reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Transocean in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Evercore ISI lowered shares of Transocean from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $6.00 to $5.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Roderick James Mackenzie sold 22,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $3.85, for a total transaction of $84,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 313,072 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,205,327.20. The trade was a 6.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 13.16% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Transocean by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 78,811,863 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock valued at $295,544,000 after purchasing an additional 931,684 shares during the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA raised its holdings in shares of Transocean by 0.4% during the third quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 56,342,169 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock valued at $239,454,000 after purchasing an additional 222,680 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Transocean by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 40,008,596 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock valued at $150,029,000 after purchasing an additional 809,864 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Transocean by 11.0% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 19,594,121 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock valued at $83,275,000 after buying an additional 1,944,723 shares during the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in Transocean by 51.5% during the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 19,257,437 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock valued at $72,215,000 after buying an additional 6,542,271 shares during the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Transocean Price Performance

Shares of Transocean stock opened at $3.09 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $2.71 billion, a PE ratio of -4.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 2.70. Transocean has a 12-month low of $3.06 and a 12-month high of $6.88. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $3.76 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $4.16.

Transocean (NYSE:RIG) last announced its earnings results on Monday, February 17th. The offshore drilling services provider reported ($0.09) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.02 by ($0.11). The company had revenue of $952.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $962.28 million. Transocean had a negative net margin of 14.53% and a negative return on equity of 0.52%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Transocean will post 0.14 EPS for the current year.

About Transocean

Transocean Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, provides offshore contract drilling services for oil and gas wells worldwide. It contracts mobile offshore drilling rigs, related equipment, and work crews to drill oil and gas wells. The company operates a fleet of mobile offshore drilling units, consisting of ultra-deepwater floaters and harsh environment floaters.