Transocean Ltd. (NYSE:RIG) Stock Rated "Hold" by Wall Street Analysts

Key Points

• Analysts maintain a “Hold” consensus on Transocean, with three sell, four hold, three buy and one strong-buy rating among 11 brokerages. The average 12-month price target is $6.68, above the stock’s reported $5.43 opening price.
• Transocean exceeded quarterly expectations, reporting EPS of $0.03 versus $0.01 expected and revenue of $966 million versus $956.64 million projected. However, revenue declined 2.2% year over year and the company posted a negative 40.24% net margin.
• Institutional investors own 67.73% of the company, while a Transocean director recently purchased 35,000 shares at $4.95 each, increasing his holdings by 17.29%.

Shares of Transocean Ltd. (NYSE:RIG - Get Free Report) have earned a consensus recommendation of "Hold" from the eleven brokerages that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have issued a hold recommendation, three have assigned a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $6.68.

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on RIG. Weiss Ratings restated a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of Transocean in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Transocean from $8.00 to $7.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 12th. Fearnley Fonds upgraded shares of Transocean from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, August 7th. Finally, Susquehanna dropped their price target on shares of Transocean from $8.00 to $7.00 and set a "positive" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th.

Transocean Stock Performance

NYSE RIG opened at $5.43 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $6.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.89, a PEG ratio of 4.06 and a beta of 1.34. Transocean has a twelve month low of $3.03 and a twelve month high of $7.66. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $5.57 and a 200 day simple moving average of $5.93. The company has a quick ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56.

Transocean (NYSE:RIG - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The offshore drilling services provider reported $0.03 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.01 by $0.02. Transocean had a positive return on equity of 2.60% and a negative net margin of 40.24%.The firm had revenue of $966.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $956.64 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($1.06) EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was down 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Transocean will post 0.18 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Chad Deaton bought 35,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 2nd. The shares were acquired at an average price of $4.95 per share, for a total transaction of $173,250.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 237,421 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,175,233.95. This represents a 17.29% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 9.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Transocean

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Transocean by 12.3% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 48,819,576 shares of the offshore drilling services provider's stock valued at $323,682,000 after purchasing an additional 5,349,264 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its stake in Transocean by 8.7% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,148,850 shares of the offshore drilling services provider's stock worth $132,758,000 after purchasing an additional 2,166,646 shares during the period. Dalal Street LLC increased its holdings in Transocean by 10.6% in the fourth quarter. Dalal Street LLC now owns 27,040,133 shares of the offshore drilling services provider's stock worth $111,676,000 after purchasing an additional 2,597,801 shares in the last quarter. Elliott Investment Management L.P. bought a new stake in Transocean in the first quarter worth approximately $103,606,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Transocean by 7.1% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 22,797,180 shares of the offshore drilling services provider's stock valued at $94,168,000 after buying an additional 1,515,893 shares during the period. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Transocean Company Profile

Transocean Ltd. NYSE: RIG is an international offshore contract drilling company that provides drilling services to oil and gas companies. Its primary business is operating mobile offshore drilling units under contracts that support exploration, development and production activities in offshore oil and natural gas fields.

The company's fleet is focused primarily on ultra-deepwater and harsh-environment drilling units, including drillships and semisubmersible rigs. Transocean provides rig operations, drilling personnel, equipment and related services intended to help customers safely construct and complete offshore wells.

Transocean serves energy companies in major offshore drilling regions around the world.

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