MetLife Investment Management LLC Purchases 2,388 Shares of Core Laboratories Inc. (NYSE:CLB)

MetLife Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Core Laboratories Inc. (NYSE:CLB) by 8.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 29,594 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,388 shares during the quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Core Laboratories were worth $512,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Assetmark Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Core Laboratories in the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC raised its position in Core Laboratories by 173.8% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 2,037 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 1,293 shares during the period. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Core Laboratories by 2,688.5% in the 4th quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,426 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 2,339 shares during the last quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new position in shares of Core Laboratories in the 4th quarter worth approximately $149,000. Finally, Isthmus Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Core Laboratories by 5.6% during the 4th quarter. Isthmus Partners LLC now owns 11,219 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $194,000 after purchasing an additional 599 shares during the last quarter. 97.81% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on CLB. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of Core Laboratories from $19.00 to $15.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Core Laboratories from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the company from $15.00 to $16.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Core Laboratories from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have issued a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Core Laboratories has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $15.75.

Core Laboratories Trading Down 2.4 %

NYSE CLB opened at $12.05 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $564.94 million, a PE ratio of 18.26, a PEG ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.99. Core Laboratories Inc. has a 12 month low of $10.14 and a 12 month high of $25.13. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $13.46 and its 200-day moving average price is $16.87. The company has a current ratio of 2.32, a quick ratio of 1.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49.

Core Laboratories (NYSE:CLB) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The oil and gas company reported $0.14 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by ($0.01). Core Laboratories had a return on equity of 16.24% and a net margin of 5.99%. The company had revenue of $123.59 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $125.09 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.19 earnings per share. Core Laboratories’s revenue was down 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Core Laboratories Inc. will post 0.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Core Laboratories Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.01 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 5th. This represents a $0.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.33%. Core Laboratories’s dividend payout ratio is currently 6.78%.

About Core Laboratories

Core Laboratories Inc provides reservoir description and production enhancement services and products to the oil and gas industry in the United States, and internationally. It operates through Reservoir Description and Production Enhancement segments. The Reservoir Description segment includes the characterization of petroleum reservoir rock and reservoir fluid samples to enhance production and improve recovery of crude oil and gas from its clients' reservoirs.