Bank of America Corp DE Trims Stock Position in Transocean Ltd. $RIG

Key Points

• Bank of America cut its Transocean stake by 44.5% in the first quarter, selling 6.9 million shares and retaining 8.6 million shares worth approximately $57 million.
• Institutional ownership remains substantial at 67.73%, with Vanguard, Dimensional Fund Advisors, Dalal Street, Morgan Stanley and State Street increasing their positions.
• Analyst sentiment is mixed: the consensus rating is “Hold” with a $6.82 price target, while Transocean recently beat quarterly earnings estimates but reported a 2.2% year-over-year revenue decline and a negative net margin.

Bank of America Corp DE trimmed its stake in shares of Transocean Ltd. (NYSE:RIG - Free Report) by 44.5% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,602,323 shares of the offshore drilling services provider's stock after selling 6,902,038 shares during the quarter. Bank of America Corp DE owned about 0.77% of Transocean worth $57,033,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Transocean by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 97,006,263 shares of the offshore drilling services provider's stock worth $400,636,000 after purchasing an additional 2,487,015 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in 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 buying an additional 5,349,264 shares during the last quarter. Dalal Street LLC increased its stake in Transocean by 10.6% in the 4th quarter. Dalal Street LLC now owns 27,040,133 shares of the offshore drilling services provider's stock valued at $111,676,000 after buying an additional 2,597,801 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley increased its stake in Transocean by 9.4% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 24,790,325 shares of the offshore drilling services provider's stock valued at $102,384,000 after buying an additional 2,135,964 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp raised its position in Transocean by 13.1% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 24,725,897 shares of the offshore drilling services provider's stock worth $102,118,000 after buying an additional 2,856,372 shares during the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on RIG. Fearnley Fonds raised shares of Transocean from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, August 7th. Barclays raised shares of Transocean from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and increased their price target for the stock from $6.00 to $8.00 in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of Transocean in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Susquehanna cut their target price on Transocean from $8.00 to $7.00 and set a "positive" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. Finally, TD Cowen raised their price target on Transocean from $5.50 to $6.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $6.82.

Insider Transactions at Transocean

In other news, Director Chad C. Deaton bought 35,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 2nd. The shares were bought at an average cost of $4.95 per share, for a total transaction of $173,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 237,421 shares in the company, valued at $1,175,233.95. This trade represents a 17.29% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 9.70% of the company's stock.

Transocean Trading Up 1.7%

Shares of Transocean stock opened at $5.82 on Wednesday. Transocean Ltd. has a 12-month low of $2.76 and a 12-month high of $7.66. The company has a current ratio of 1.59, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56. The stock has a market cap of $6.49 billion, a PE ratio of -3.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.08 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a 50-day moving average of $5.36 and a two-hundred day moving average of $5.93.

Transocean (NYSE:RIG - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly 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. The business had revenue of $966.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $956.64 million. Transocean had a positive return on equity of 2.60% and a negative net margin of 40.24%.The company's quarterly revenue was down 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($1.06) EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Transocean Ltd. will post 0.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Transocean

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.

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