Capital World Investors Trims Position in Transocean Ltd. $RIG

Capital World Investors lessened its stake in shares of Transocean Ltd. (NYSE:RIG) by 16.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 15,665,736 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock after selling 3,000,000 shares during the period. Capital World Investors owned 1.42% of Transocean worth $64,699,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Fruth Investment Management raised its holdings in shares of Transocean by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Fruth Investment Management now owns 90,378 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock worth $373,000 after acquiring an additional 2,500 shares during the period. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its holdings in shares of Transocean by 9.0% during the 3rd quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 35,604 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock worth $114,000 after acquiring an additional 2,932 shares during the period. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Transocean by 3.5% during the 3rd quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 100,634 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock worth $314,000 after acquiring an additional 3,367 shares during the period. Townsend & Associates Inc raised its holdings in shares of Transocean by 16.0% during the 4th quarter. Townsend & Associates Inc now owns 29,000 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock worth $126,000 after acquiring an additional 4,000 shares during the period. Finally, Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV raised its holdings in shares of Transocean by 20.0% during the 3rd quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 24,175 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock worth $75,000 after acquiring an additional 4,026 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently commented on RIG shares. TD Cowen lifted their price target on Transocean from $5.50 to $6.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Clarkson Capital lowered shares of Transocean from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 19th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Transocean from $5.00 to $7.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 15th. Fearnley Fonds lowered shares of Transocean from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 10th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Transocean in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $6.96.

Transocean Stock Down 4.8%

Shares of RIG opened at $5.88 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $6.56 billion, a P/E ratio of -1.97 and a beta of 1.28. Transocean Ltd. has a 12-month low of $2.51 and a 12-month high of $7.66. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $6.48 and its 200 day moving average price is $5.59. The company has a current ratio of 1.54, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60.

Transocean (NYSE:RIG) last released its earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The offshore drilling services provider reported ($0.03) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.07 by ($0.10). The firm had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. Transocean had a negative net margin of 66.79% and a positive return on equity of 0.88%. The business’s revenue was up 19.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.10) earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Transocean Ltd. will post 0.17 earnings per share for the current year.

Transocean Company Profile

Transocean Ltd. is a leading international provider of offshore contract drilling services for the oil and gas industry. The company specializes in the operation of mobile drilling units, including ultra-deepwater drillships, semisubmersible rigs and high-specification jackup rigs. Transocean’s fleet is designed to meet complex drilling requirements, from ultra-deepwater well construction to shelf exploration and development projects.

The company’s core services encompass the full spectrum of offshore drilling operations, including project and engineering management, marine operations, drilling supervision, and maintenance support.