Seadrill (NYSE:SDRL) Rating Lowered to “Hold” at Zacks Research

Seadrill (NYSE:SDRL) was downgraded by Zacks Research from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report released on Wednesday, Zacks reports.

Several other analysts have also recently issued reports on SDRL. Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Seadrill in a research report on Monday, September 7th. BWS Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $80.00 price objective on shares of Seadrill in a research report on Wednesday. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Seadrill from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Friday, October 9th. Finally, Capital One Financial set a $55.00 target price on shares of Seadrill and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $59.40.

Seadrill Stock Down 1.5%

SDRL opened at $46.29 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 2.50 and a current ratio of 2.50. Seadrill has a fifty-two week low of $28.10 and a fifty-two week high of $55.47. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $47.03 and its 200 day moving average is $45.78. The stock has a market cap of $2.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 1,543.10 and a beta of 1.25.

Seadrill (NYSE:SDRL) last issued its earnings results on Monday, August 10th. The oil and gas company reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.29 by $0.18. Seadrill had a net margin of 0.07% and a return on equity of 0.64%. The company had revenue of $430.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $388.46 million. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Seadrill will post 0.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Seadrill

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in Seadrill during the second quarter valued at approximately $207,509,000. Patient Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Seadrill in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $73,876,000. Webs Creek Capital Management LP bought a new stake in Seadrill in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $49,368,299. Wellington Management Group LLP bought a new stake in Seadrill in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $29,947,000. Finally, Goehring & Rozencwajg Associates LLC increased its stake in Seadrill by 27.6% in the 1st quarter. Goehring & Rozencwajg Associates LLC now owns 2,449,565 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $111,455,000 after acquiring an additional 529,884 shares during the last quarter. 95.67% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Seadrill Company Profile

Seadrill Limited is an offshore drilling contractor that provides drilling services to oil and gas companies worldwide. The company operates and manages offshore drilling units, including drillships and semisubmersible rigs, used to explore for and develop oil and natural gas resources in deepwater and other challenging marine environments.

Its services include contract drilling, rig operations, well construction support and related offshore services. Seadrill’s fleet is designed to serve a range of offshore projects, with operations and contract activity spanning major energy-producing regions such as the Gulf of Mexico, Brazil, the North Sea, West Africa and other international markets.

Seadrill was founded in 2005 and has expanded through fleet development, acquisitions and strategic transactions.