First Trust Advisors LP Acquires 316,362 Shares of Transocean Ltd. (NYSE:RIG)

First Trust Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Transocean Ltd. (NYSE:RIG - Free Report) by 51.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 930,851 shares of the offshore drilling services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 316,362 shares during the quarter. First Trust Advisors LP owned approximately 0.11% of Transocean worth $3,491,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Twin Tree Management LP bought a new position in Transocean in the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. Blue Trust Inc. increased its holdings in Transocean by 96.2% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 9,841 shares of the offshore drilling services provider's stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 4,826 shares during the last quarter. Adero Partners LLC bought a new stake in Transocean in the 4th quarter valued at about $38,000. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. purchased a new stake in Transocean during the fourth quarter valued at about $40,000. Finally, R Squared Ltd bought a new position in Transocean during the fourth quarter worth about $41,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.73% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on RIG. Evercore ISI cut shares of Transocean from an "outperform" rating to an "in-line" rating and dropped their price target for the company from $6.00 to $5.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Transocean from $5.00 to $4.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 27th. Citigroup reduced their price target on Transocean from $4.50 to $3.50 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. TD Cowen dropped their price objective on Transocean from $6.50 to $5.50 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Barclays reduced their target price on Transocean from $4.00 to $3.50 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $4.59.

Insider Buying and Selling at Transocean

In other news, EVP Roderick James Mackenzie sold 22,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $3.85, for a total value of $84,700.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 313,072 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,205,327.20. This trade represents a 6.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 12.27% of the company's stock.

Transocean Price Performance

Shares of NYSE RIG traded up $0.08 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $2.38. 47,072,385 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 24,985,562. The business's fifty day moving average price is $2.64 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $3.50. The company has a market cap of $2.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.25, a PEG ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 2.52. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. Transocean Ltd. has a 12-month low of $1.97 and a 12-month high of $6.38.

Transocean (NYSE:RIG - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 28th. The offshore drilling services provider reported ($0.10) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.12) by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $906.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $884.92 million. Transocean had a negative return on equity of 0.52% and a negative net margin of 14.53%. The company's revenue was up 18.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.03) earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Transocean Ltd. will post 0.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Transocean

Transocean Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, provides offshore contract drilling services for oil and gas wells worldwide. It contracts mobile offshore drilling rigs, related equipment, and work crews to drill oil and gas wells. The company operates a fleet of mobile offshore drilling units, consisting of ultra-deepwater floaters and harsh environment floaters.