Core Laboratories Inc. (NYSE:CLB) Short Interest Down 6.5% in December

Core Laboratories Inc. (NYSE:CLB) saw a large decline in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 6,290,000 shares, a decline of 6.5% from the December 15th total of 6,730,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 309,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 20.3 days. Approximately 13.5% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on CLB shares. StockNews.com upgraded Core Laboratories from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Citigroup reduced their target price on Core Laboratories from $15.00 to $14.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have issued a hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $17.00.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Core Laboratories

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Core Laboratories by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,975,016 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $36,597,000 after buying an additional 56,187 shares in the last quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN increased its position in Core Laboratories by 446.8% in the second quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 4,460,720 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $90,508,000 after purchasing an additional 3,644,963 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Core Laboratories by 12.5% in the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 306,287 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $6,215,000 after purchasing an additional 34,149 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Core Laboratories by 0.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,053,204 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $19,521,000 after purchasing an additional 7,721 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Earnest Partners LLC lifted its position in Core Laboratories by 6.3% during the second quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 3,286,438 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $66,682,000 after purchasing an additional 195,756 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 97.81% of the company’s stock.

Core Laboratories Stock Performance

NYSE:CLB traded up $0.62 on Friday, hitting $19.73. The stock had a trading volume of 265,941 shares, compared to its average volume of 292,069. Core Laboratories has a 52-week low of $13.82 and a 52-week high of $25.13. The stock has a market cap of $926.51 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 2.39. The company has a quick ratio of 1.79, a current ratio of 2.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $19.13 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $19.57.

Core Laboratories (NYSE:CLB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The oil and gas company reported $0.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.21 by $0.04. Core Laboratories had a return on equity of 15.84% and a net margin of 5.83%. The business had revenue of $134.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $134.16 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.22 earnings per share. Core Laboratories’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Core Laboratories will post 0.8 earnings per share for the current year.

Core Laboratories Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 25th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 4th were paid a $0.01 dividend. This represents a $0.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 4th. Core Laboratories’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 6.15%.

Core Laboratories Company Profile

Core Laboratories Inc provides reservoir description and production enhancement services and products to the oil and gas industry in the United States, and internationally. It operates through Reservoir Description and Production Enhancement segments. The Reservoir Description segment includes the characterization of petroleum reservoir rock and reservoir fluid samples to enhance production and improve recovery of crude oil and gas from its clients' reservoirs.