SLB Limited $SLB Shares Purchased by Great Lakes Retirement Inc.

Great Lakes Retirement Inc. raised its stake in shares of SLB Limited (NYSE:SLB) by 12.2% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 308,955 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after acquiring an additional 33,489 shares during the quarter. SLB comprises approximately 1.2% of Great Lakes Retirement Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 22nd largest position. Great Lakes Retirement Inc.’s holdings in SLB were worth $10,619,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of SLB by 23.3% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 185,374,879 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $6,371,335,000 after purchasing an additional 35,057,313 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in SLB in the second quarter valued at about $618,697,000. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in SLB by 30.4% in the second quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 20,233,749 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $683,901,000 after buying an additional 4,719,852 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its stake in SLB by 80.7% during the second quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 6,788,978 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $229,466,000 after buying an additional 3,031,906 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in SLB by 346.3% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 3,876,526 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $133,236,000 after buying an additional 3,007,911 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 81.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on SLB. Argus upgraded SLB to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 26th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of SLB from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of SLB from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 26th. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price target on shares of SLB from $47.60 to $52.30 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 11th. Finally, TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of SLB from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have given a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, SLB currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $52.38.

SLB Stock Performance

Shares of SLB opened at $48.55 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $47.16 and a 200-day moving average of $39.78. The company has a market cap of $72.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.49 and a beta of 0.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 1.33. SLB Limited has a 1 year low of $31.11 and a 1 year high of $52.45.

SLB (NYSE:SLB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 23rd. The oil and gas company reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $9.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.54 billion. SLB had a net margin of 9.45% and a return on equity of 17.45%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.92 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that SLB Limited will post 3.38 earnings per share for the current year.

SLB Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.295 per share. This represents a $1.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. This is a boost from SLB’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 11th. SLB’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling at SLB

In other SLB news, insider Dianne B. Ralston sold 18,617 shares of SLB stock in a transaction on Monday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.50, for a total transaction of $921,541.50. Following the sale, the insider owned 224,097 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,092,801.50. The trade was a 7.67% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Abdellah Merad sold 60,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.70, for a total value of $2,982,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 140,602 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,987,919.40. The trade was a 29.91% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 156,902 shares of company stock valued at $7,796,666. 0.22% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

SLB Company Profile

SLB (NYSE: SLB), historically known as Schlumberger, is a leading global provider of technology, integrated project management and information solutions for the energy industry. Founded by Conrad and Marcel Schlumberger in 1926, the company develops and supplies products and services used across the exploration, drilling, completion and production phases of oil and gas development. Its offerings are intended to help operators characterize reservoirs, drill and complete wells, optimize production and manage field operations throughout the asset lifecycle.

SLB’s product and service portfolio spans reservoir characterization and well testing, wireline and logging services, directional drilling and drilling tools, well construction and completion technologies, production systems, and subsea equipment.