SLB Limited (NYSE:SLB) Given Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

SLB Limited (NYSE:SLB) has been given an average rating of “Moderate Buy” by the twenty-three brokerages that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, sixteen have given a buy recommendation and two have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $52.3150.

Several brokerages recently weighed in on SLB. Melius started coverage on SLB in a research report on Wednesday, August 20th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $82.00 target price on the stock. TD Cowen upped their price target on SLB from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of SLB in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on SLB from $47.60 to $52.30 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Piper Sandler set a $42.00 price target on shares of SLB and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 20th.

SLB Trading Down 2.2%

Shares of SLB stock opened at $39.44 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $35.87 and its 200-day simple moving average is $35.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 1.01. SLB has a 1-year low of $31.11 and a 1-year high of $44.66. The firm has a market cap of $58.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.23 and a beta of 0.73.

SLB (NYSE:SLB) last released its earnings results on Friday, October 17th. The oil and gas company reported $0.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $8.93 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.99 billion. SLB had a net margin of 10.34% and a return on equity of 18.97%. SLB’s revenue was down 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.89 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that SLB will post 3.38 EPS for the current year.

SLB Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 3rd will be paid a $0.285 dividend. This represents a $1.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 3rd. SLB’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 44.02%.

Insider Activity at SLB

In other SLB news, Director Peter John Coleman sold 5,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.82, for a total transaction of $197,010.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 18,671 shares in the company, valued at $668,795.22. The trade was a 22.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Stephane Biguet sold 38,447 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.75, for a total value of $1,412,927.25. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 175,690 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,456,607.50. The trade was a 17.95% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 103,947 shares of company stock worth $3,871,337. 0.22% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On SLB

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of SLB. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of SLB by 23.3% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 185,374,879 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $6,371,335,000 after purchasing an additional 35,057,313 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in SLB by 7.0% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 83,617,999 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $2,898,037,000 after purchasing an additional 5,466,786 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in SLB by 30.4% during the 2nd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 20,233,749 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $683,901,000 after buying an additional 4,719,852 shares during the period. Boston Partners lifted its holdings in SLB by 27.7% in the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 19,829,381 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $824,160,000 after buying an additional 4,300,222 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in SLB in the 2nd quarter worth $618,697,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.99% of the company’s stock.

About SLB

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.