Core Laboratories Inc. (NYSE:CLB) Short Interest Down 6.5% in December

Core Laboratories Inc. (NYSE:CLB) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 6,290,000 shares, a decrease of 6.5% from the December 15th total of 6,730,000 shares. Currently, 13.5% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 309,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 20.3 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently issued reports on CLB shares. StockNews.com upgraded Core Laboratories from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on Core Laboratories from $15.00 to $14.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have issued a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Core Laboratories has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $17.00.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Core Laboratories

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CLB. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Core Laboratories by 2,688.5% in the 4th quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,426 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 2,339 shares during the period. nVerses Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Core Laboratories in the third quarter valued at approximately $48,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Core Laboratories by 33.0% in the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 5,885 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $109,000 after acquiring an additional 1,460 shares during the period. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its position in shares of Core Laboratories by 11.9% during the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 5,636 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $114,000 after acquiring an additional 600 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Isthmus Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Core Laboratories by 18.8% in the 3rd quarter. Isthmus Partners LLC now owns 10,620 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $197,000 after acquiring an additional 1,682 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.81% of the company’s stock.

Core Laboratories Stock Up 3.3 %

Shares of CLB stock traded up $0.62 on Monday, reaching $19.73. 265,941 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 292,069. The company has a market capitalization of $926.51 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.36, a PEG ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 2.39. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $19.13 and its 200 day moving average price is $19.56. The company has a current ratio of 2.48, a quick ratio of 1.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. Core Laboratories has a twelve month low of $13.82 and a twelve month high of $25.13.

Core Laboratories (NYSE:CLB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The oil and gas company reported $0.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.21 by $0.04. Core Laboratories had a return on equity of 15.84% and a net margin of 5.83%. The business had revenue of $134.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $134.16 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.22 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Core Laboratories will post 0.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Core Laboratories Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 25th. Investors of record on Monday, November 4th were given a $0.01 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 4th. This represents a $0.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.20%. Core Laboratories’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 6.15%.

About Core Laboratories

Core Laboratories Inc provides reservoir description and production enhancement services and products to the oil and gas industry in the United States, and internationally. It operates through Reservoir Description and Production Enhancement segments. The Reservoir Description segment includes the characterization of petroleum reservoir rock and reservoir fluid samples to enhance production and improve recovery of crude oil and gas from its clients' reservoirs.