Precision Drilling Corporation (NYSE:PDS) Stock Rated “Moderate Buy” by Sell-Side Brokerages

Precision Drilling Corporation (NYSE:PDS) (TSE:PD) has received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eight analysts that are covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $122.33.

PDS has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Zacks Research downgraded Precision Drilling from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Wall Street Zen cut Precision Drilling from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, August 9th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Precision Drilling in a report on Friday, September 18th.

Precision Drilling Stock Performance

Shares of PDS stock opened at $79.18 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $996.59 million, a P/E ratio of -37.88 and a beta of 0.81. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $84.94 and a 200 day moving average price of $88.48. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. Precision Drilling has a 12 month low of $53.42 and a 12 month high of $103.80.

Precision Drilling (NYSE:PDS) (TSE:PD) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The oil and gas company reported ($0.38) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by ($0.81). The business had revenue of $319.15 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $310.70 million. Precision Drilling had a negative net margin of 1.68% and a positive return on equity of 2.11%. Sell-side analysts predict that Precision Drilling will post 4.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Precision Drilling

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in Precision Drilling during the 4th quarter worth approximately $20,979,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lifted its stake in Precision Drilling by 11,668,900.0% in the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 116,690 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $8,388,000 after buying an additional 116,689 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Precision Drilling by 37.0% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 288,013 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $28,340,000 after buying an additional 77,775 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its holdings in shares of Precision Drilling by 24.3% in the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 373,936 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $36,803,000 after acquiring an additional 73,084 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in shares of Precision Drilling by 129.5% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 114,706 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $11,287,000 after acquiring an additional 64,735 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 48.86% of the company’s stock.

About Precision Drilling

Precision Drilling Corporation is a Canadian oilfield services company that provides contract drilling and well-servicing solutions to oil and natural gas exploration and production companies. The company is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, and trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol PDS.

Its primary business is contract drilling, including the provision of land-based drilling rigs, crews and related equipment used to construct oil and gas wells.