Board of the Pension Protection Fund Purchases Shares of 24,200 SLB Limited $SLB

Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new position in shares of SLB Limited (NYSE:SLB) in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 24,200 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock, valued at approximately $832,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in SLB by 14.2% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 150,317,566 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $5,080,734,000 after acquiring an additional 18,672,021 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in shares of SLB by 30.4% in the 2nd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 20,233,749 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $683,901,000 after purchasing an additional 4,719,852 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of SLB in the 2nd quarter valued at $618,697,000. Amundi lifted its position in shares of SLB by 29.9% during the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 11,415,740 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $409,939,000 after purchasing an additional 2,624,679 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in shares of SLB by 1.2% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 9,681,754 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $327,243,000 after purchasing an additional 114,190 shares in the last quarter. 81.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SLB has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $57.00 price target on shares of SLB in a report on Thursday, December 11th. Zacks Research raised SLB from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, September 15th. TD Cowen upped their price target on SLB from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of SLB from $44.00 to $43.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, October 20th. Finally, Rothschild Redb upgraded shares of SLB to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 3rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $52.42.

SLB Stock Performance

Shares of SLB opened at $38.12 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $36.34 and its 200-day simple moving average is $35.29. The firm has a market cap of $56.95 billion, a PE ratio of 14.72 and a beta of 0.73. SLB Limited has a 12-month low of $31.11 and a 12-month high of $44.66. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40.

SLB (NYSE:SLB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 17th. The oil and gas company reported $0.69 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67 by $0.02. SLB had a net margin of 10.34% and a return on equity of 18.97%. The firm had revenue of $8.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.99 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.89 EPS. SLB’s quarterly revenue was down 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that SLB Limited will post 3.38 EPS for the current year.

SLB Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 8th. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.285 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 3rd. This represents a $1.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.0%. SLB’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 44.02%.

Insider Activity at SLB

In other SLB news, EVP Abdellah Merad sold 60,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.69, for a total transaction of $2,261,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 159,371 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,006,692.99. This represents a 27.35% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Peter John Coleman sold 5,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.82, for a total value of $197,010.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 18,671 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $668,795.22. The trade was a 22.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 103,947 shares of company stock worth $3,871,337 in the last quarter. Company 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.