Madison Investment Advisors LLC Purchases Shares of 2,975,000 Transocean Ltd. (NYSE:RIG)

Madison Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Transocean Ltd. (NYSE:RIG) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm purchased 2,975,000 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $11,156,000.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Swiss National Bank raised its position in Transocean by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 1,463,630 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock valued at $5,489,000 after purchasing an additional 12,900 shares in the last quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. raised its position in Transocean by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 107,012 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock valued at $401,000 after purchasing an additional 4,285 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Transocean in the fourth quarter worth about $44,000. Lane Generational LLC increased its holdings in shares of Transocean by 36.2% in the fourth quarter. Lane Generational LLC now owns 1,044,629 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock worth $3,917,000 after buying an additional 277,552 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Transocean in the fourth quarter worth about $893,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Transocean Stock Down 1.4 %

NYSE RIG opened at $3.20 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.34. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.81 billion, a PE ratio of -4.38, a PEG ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 2.72. Transocean Ltd. has a 1 year low of $2.55 and a 1 year high of $6.88. The business’s 50-day moving average is $3.49 and its 200 day moving average is $3.93.

Transocean (NYSE:RIG) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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). The firm had revenue of $952.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $962.28 million. Transocean had a negative net margin of 14.53% and a negative return on equity of 0.52%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Transocean Ltd. will post 0.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Transocean

In other Transocean news, EVP Roderick James Mackenzie sold 22,000 shares of Transocean stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3.85, for a total transaction of $84,700.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 313,072 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,205,327.20. The trade was a 6.57 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 13.16% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

RIG has been the topic of several analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Transocean from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $5.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, December 6th. Evercore ISI downgraded Transocean from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $6.00 to $5.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. TD Cowen decreased 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. SEB Equity Research set a $2.80 price objective on Transocean in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price objective on Transocean from $4.50 to $4.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $5.23.

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.