Investors Buy High Volume of SLB Call Options (NYSE:SLB)

SLB Limited (NYSE:SLB) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Monday. Investors purchased 33,012 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 59% compared to the typical volume of 20,758 call options.

Institutional Trading of SLB

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in shares of SLB by 11.1% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 10,536,104 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $541,450,000 after buying an additional 1,052,239 shares during the period. Fearnley Asset Management AS acquired a new position in SLB in the 4th quarter worth $8,574,000. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. bought a new position in SLB during the 1st quarter worth about $47,528,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in SLB by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 3,141,868 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $126,303,000 after purchasing an additional 128,660 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cibc World Market Inc. raised its stake in shares of SLB by 48.7% in the 4th quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 1,367,063 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $52,468,000 after purchasing an additional 447,667 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 81.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SLB has been the topic of a number of research reports. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on SLB from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, July 27th. Raymond James Financial dropped their price objective on shares of SLB from $62.00 to $61.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Zacks Research lowered shares of SLB from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Monday, July 27th. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of SLB from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 27th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on SLB from $64.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, July 27th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, SLB presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $61.35.

SLB Stock Up 0.2%

SLB stock traded up $0.12 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $53.99. 6,678,145 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 16,422,262. SLB has a 1-year low of $31.64 and a 1-year high of $58.82. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $49.30 and a two-hundred day moving average of $51.26. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. The stock has a market cap of $80.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.08, a P/E/G ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 0.73.

SLB (NYSE:SLB) last posted its earnings results on Saturday, July 25th. The oil and gas company reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.51 by $0.04. SLB had a return on equity of 14.05% and a net margin of 8.53%.The firm had revenue of $8.97 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.67 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.74 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that SLB will post 2.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

SLB Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 2nd will be given a $0.295 dividend. This represents a $1.18 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 2nd. SLB’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 57.00%.

About SLB

SLB (NYSE: SLB), historically known as Schlumberger, is a leading global provider of technology, integrated project management and information solutions for the energy industry. Founded by Conrad and Marcel Schlumberger in 1926, the company develops and supplies products and services used across the exploration, drilling, completion and production phases of oil and gas development. Its offerings are intended to help operators characterize reservoirs, drill and complete wells, optimize production and manage field operations throughout the asset lifecycle.

SLB’s product and service portfolio spans reservoir characterization and well testing, wireline and logging services, directional drilling and drilling tools, well construction and completion technologies, production systems, and subsea equipment.