Transocean (NYSE:RIG) Trading Up 4% – Here’s Why

Transocean Ltd. (NYSE:RIG)’s share price was up 4% during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $3.25 and last traded at $3.27. Approximately 3,062,960 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 86% from the average daily volume of 21,800,805 shares. The stock had previously closed at $3.14.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on RIG. Evercore ISI lowered Transocean from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $6.00 to $5.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Transocean from $5.00 to $4.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. SEB Equity Research set a $2.80 target price on shares of Transocean in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Transocean from $4.50 to $4.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Finally, Citigroup cut their price objective on Transocean from $4.50 to $3.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $5.03.

Transocean Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $2.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.51, a PEG ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 2.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.34. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $3.42 and a 200 day moving average of $3.91.

Transocean (NYSE:RIG) last issued its earnings results on Monday, February 17th. The offshore drilling services provider reported ($0.09) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.02 by ($0.11). Transocean had a negative return on equity of 0.52% and a negative net margin of 14.53%. The company had revenue of $952.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $962.28 million. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Transocean Ltd. will post 0.14 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Transocean

In other Transocean news, EVP Roderick James Mackenzie sold 22,000 shares of Transocean stock in a transaction on Friday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $4.05, for a total value of $89,100.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 229,596 shares in the company, valued at $929,863.80. The trade was a 8.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 13.16% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Transocean

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Transocean by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 78,811,863 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock valued at $295,544,000 after buying an additional 931,684 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Transocean by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 40,008,596 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock worth $150,029,000 after acquiring an additional 809,864 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Transocean by 11.0% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 19,594,121 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock worth $83,275,000 after purchasing an additional 1,944,723 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in Transocean by 51.5% in the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 19,257,437 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock valued at $72,215,000 after purchasing an additional 6,542,271 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pilgrim Global Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Transocean in the third quarter valued at approximately $77,473,000. 67.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Transocean Company Profile

Transocean Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, provides offshore contract drilling services for oil and gas wells worldwide. It contracts mobile offshore drilling rigs, related equipment, and work crews to drill oil and gas wells. The company operates a fleet of mobile offshore drilling units, consisting of ultra-deepwater floaters and harsh environment floaters.