Transocean Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:RIG)

Transocean Ltd. (NYSE:RIG) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Traders acquired 80,777 call options on the company. This is an increase of 69% compared to the average daily volume of 47,808 call options.

Transocean Price Performance

Transocean stock opened at $6.10 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $6.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.93 and a beta of 1.40. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $5.09 and a two-hundred day moving average of $4.14. Transocean has a 1 year low of $1.97 and a 1 year high of $6.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 1.56 and a quick ratio of 1.27.

Transocean (NYSE:RIG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 19th. The offshore drilling services provider reported $0.02 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.09 by ($0.07). Transocean had a negative net margin of 73.52% and a positive return on equity of 0.41%. The company had revenue of $1.04 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.03 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.09) EPS. The business’s revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Transocean will post 0.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Keelan Adamson sold 58,687 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $5.00, for a total transaction of $293,435.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,222,182 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,110,910. This represents a 4.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders have sold a total of 147,970 shares of company stock valued at $706,632 in the last quarter. Insiders own 12.54% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Transocean

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Fruth Investment Management lifted its stake in Transocean by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Fruth Investment Management now owns 90,378 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock worth $373,000 after acquiring an additional 2,500 shares during the period. Annandale Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of Transocean by 17.7% in the 4th quarter. Annandale Capital LLC now owns 16,600 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock worth $69,000 after purchasing an additional 2,500 shares during the period. Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its stake in shares of Transocean by 9.0% during the third quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 35,604 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock valued at $114,000 after purchasing an additional 2,932 shares in the last quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Transocean by 3.5% in the third quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 100,634 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock worth $314,000 after buying an additional 3,367 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Moors & Cabot Inc. lifted its holdings in Transocean by 14.7% during the second quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 27,350 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock worth $71,000 after buying an additional 3,500 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated an “underweight” rating on shares of Transocean in a report on Wednesday, December 10th. BTIG Research boosted their price objective on Transocean from $6.00 to $10.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Barclays lowered Transocean from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $4.50 to $6.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 18th. Pareto Securities downgraded Transocean from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $5.25 target price on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, February 10th. Finally, Fearnley Fonds downgraded Transocean from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 10th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $5.86.

Transocean Company Profile

Transocean Ltd. is a leading international provider of offshore contract drilling services for the oil and gas industry. The company specializes in the operation of mobile drilling units, including ultra-deepwater drillships, semisubmersible rigs and high-specification jackup rigs. Transocean’s fleet is designed to meet complex drilling requirements, from ultra-deepwater well construction to shelf exploration and development projects.

The company’s core services encompass the full spectrum of offshore drilling operations, including project and engineering management, marine operations, drilling supervision, and maintenance support.