Artisan Partners Limited Partnership Raises Holdings in SLB Limited $SLB

Key Points

• Artisan Partners increased its SLB stake by 3.7% in the fourth quarter, ending with 3,642,716 shares valued at about $139.8 million.
• Institutional ownership in SLB remains very high, with hedge funds and other institutions holding 81.99% of the stock. Several major firms, including Vanguard and Norges Bank, also added to their positions.
• SLB reported quarterly EPS of $0.52, slightly ahead of expectations, and the company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.295 per share, equal to an annualized yield of about 2.2%.

Artisan Partners Limited Partnership raised its holdings in shares of SLB Limited (NYSE:SLB - Free Report) by 3.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,642,716 shares of the oil and gas company's stock after purchasing an additional 130,689 shares during the period. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership owned approximately 0.24% of SLB worth $139,807,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in SLB. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in SLB by 23.3% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 185,374,879 shares of the oil and gas company's stock valued at $6,371,335,000 after purchasing an additional 35,057,313 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of SLB during the 4th quarter valued at $809,557,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in shares of SLB by 64.4% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 15,696,831 shares of the oil and gas company's stock valued at $602,444,000 after buying an additional 6,149,511 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of SLB by 7.0% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 83,617,999 shares of the oil and gas company's stock valued at $2,898,037,000 after buying an additional 5,466,786 shares during the period. Finally, Capital International Investors lifted its holdings in shares of SLB by 86.9% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 11,627,072 shares of the oil and gas company's stock valued at $446,247,000 after buying an additional 5,404,948 shares during the period. 81.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SLB has been the topic of several research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on SLB from $53.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. Evercore reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $64.00 price target on shares of SLB in a report on Monday, April 27th. Wall Street Zen cut SLB from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, March 14th. Weiss Ratings cut SLB from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "hold (c)" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $57.00 price target on SLB in a report on Monday, April 27th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $60.67.

SLB Stock Performance

NYSE:SLB opened at $53.06 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $79.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.17, a P/E/G ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.70. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $54.80 and a 200 day moving average price of $48.84. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. SLB Limited has a 12-month low of $31.64 and a 12-month high of $58.82.

SLB (NYSE:SLB - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Saturday, April 25th. The oil and gas company reported $0.52 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.51 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $8.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.76 billion. SLB had a return on equity of 15.54% and a net margin of 9.26%.The business's quarterly revenue was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.72 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that SLB Limited will post 2.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

SLB Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 9th. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 3rd will be issued a $0.295 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 3rd. This represents a $1.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.2%. SLB's payout ratio is presently 51.53%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Steve Matthew Gassen sold 53,379 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.18, for a total value of $2,998,832.22. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 47,421 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,664,111.78. The trade was a 52.96% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director La Chevardiere Patrick De sold 2,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.33, for a total transaction of $108,660.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 16,953 shares of the company's stock, valued at $921,056.49. This trade represents a 10.55% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.16% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.

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