Transocean Ltd. (NYSE:RIG) Given Average Recommendation of “Hold” by Analysts

Transocean Ltd. (NYSE:RIG) has received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the ten brokerages that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have given a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $5.75.

RIG has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Transocean from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $5.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Evercore ISI cut shares of Transocean from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and cut their price target for the company from $6.00 to $5.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Transocean to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Benchmark reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Transocean in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, TD Cowen reduced their target price on Transocean from $6.50 to $5.50 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Transocean

In other Transocean news, EVP Roderick James Mackenzie sold 22,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.05, for a total transaction of $89,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 229,596 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $929,863.80. This represents a 8.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 13.16% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Transocean

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Transocean by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 78,811,863 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock valued at $295,544,000 after purchasing an additional 931,684 shares during the period. Primecap Management Co. CA increased its holdings in Transocean by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 56,342,169 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock worth $239,454,000 after acquiring an additional 222,680 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in Transocean by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 40,008,596 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock worth $150,029,000 after acquiring an additional 809,864 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Transocean by 11.0% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 19,594,121 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock valued at $83,275,000 after purchasing an additional 1,944,723 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in shares of Transocean by 51.5% in the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 19,257,437 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock valued at $72,215,000 after acquiring an additional 6,542,271 shares in the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Transocean Trading Down 0.5 %

NYSE:RIG opened at $2.74 on Thursday. Transocean has a one year low of $2.55 and a one year high of $6.88. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $3.70 and its 200 day simple moving average is $4.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.40 billion, a P/E ratio of -3.75, a PEG ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 2.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.34.

Transocean (NYSE:RIG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 17th. The offshore drilling services provider reported ($0.09) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.02 by ($0.11). Transocean had a negative return on equity of 0.52% and a negative net margin of 14.53%. The company had revenue of $952.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $962.28 million. As a group, analysts forecast that Transocean will post 0.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Transocean Company Profile

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.