Valeo Financial Advisors LLC Sells 3,685 Shares of Schlumberger Limited (NYSE:SLB)

Valeo Financial Advisors LLC decreased its stake in shares of Schlumberger Limited (NYSE:SLB) by 11.8% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 27,440 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after selling 3,685 shares during the quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Schlumberger were worth $1,052,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Schlumberger by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 90,209,014 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $3,808,476,000 after buying an additional 528,279 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Schlumberger by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 28,608,226 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $1,195,290,000 after buying an additional 239,966 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Schlumberger by 12,289.6% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 13,043,359 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $500,082,000 after buying an additional 12,938,082 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Schlumberger by 20.6% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 11,213,944 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $470,425,000 after buying an additional 1,916,851 shares during the period. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Schlumberger by 12.7% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 8,103,715 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $310,696,000 after buying an additional 915,925 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 81.99% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Schlumberger

In related news, Director Vijay Kasibhatla sold 25,000 shares of Schlumberger stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.94, for a total transaction of $1,098,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 49,595 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,179,204.30. This trade represents a 33.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Mogharbel Khaled Al sold 123,097 shares of Schlumberger stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.09, for a total transaction of $5,427,346.73. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 184,626 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,140,160.34. This represents a 40.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 263,782 shares of company stock worth $11,442,229. 0.26% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on SLB. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Schlumberger to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on shares of Schlumberger from $60.00 to $59.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $57.00 price objective on shares of Schlumberger in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Schlumberger from $61.00 to $53.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Schlumberger from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $55.81.

Schlumberger Price Performance

SLB stock opened at $41.75 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 1.45 and a quick ratio of 1.11. Schlumberger Limited has a 1 year low of $36.52 and a 1 year high of $55.69. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $40.08 and a 200 day simple moving average of $42.01. The stock has a market cap of $58.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.42, a P/E/G ratio of 9.49 and a beta of 1.51.

Schlumberger (NYSE:SLB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 17th. The oil and gas company reported $0.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.02. Schlumberger had a net margin of 12.29% and a return on equity of 21.90%. The firm had revenue of $9.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.24 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.86 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Schlumberger Limited will post 3.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Schlumberger Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 5th will be given a $0.285 dividend. This is a boost from Schlumberger’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.14 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.73%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, February 5th. Schlumberger’s dividend payout ratio is 36.66%.

About Schlumberger

Schlumberger Limited engages in the provision of technology for the energy industry worldwide. The company operates through four divisions: Digital & Integration, Reservoir Performance, Well Construction, and Production Systems. The company provides field development and hydrocarbon production, carbon management, and integration of adjacent energy systems; reservoir interpretation and data processing services for exploration data; and well construction and production improvement services and products.