Van ECK Associates Corp Acquires 884,924 Shares of Transocean Ltd. $RIG

Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in Transocean Ltd. (NYSE:RIG) by 6.4% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 14,690,291 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 884,924 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp’s holdings in Transocean were worth $45,834,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of RIG. Benedict Financial Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Transocean in the third quarter worth $31,000. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. acquired a new position in Transocean during the 3rd quarter valued at $31,000. Josh Arnold Investment Consultant LLC bought a new stake in Transocean in the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. Blueshift Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in Transocean in the 2nd quarter worth $27,000. Finally, SBI Securities Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Transocean by 78.0% during the 2nd quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 10,729 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 4,700 shares during the period. 67.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Keelan Adamson sold 58,687 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $5.00, for a total value 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. The trade was a 4.58% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Roderick James Mackenzie sold 78,370 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.36, for a total value of $498,433.20. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 268,025 shares in the company, valued at $1,704,639. This trade represents a 22.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders sold 159,903 shares of company stock valued at $906,098. 12.27% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Transocean Price Performance

Shares of Transocean stock opened at $6.32 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $6.97 billion, a P/E ratio of -2.01 and a beta of 1.40. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $5.34 and its 200-day simple moving average is $4.27. Transocean Ltd. has a twelve month low of $1.97 and a twelve month high of $6.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a current ratio of 1.56.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

RIG has been the subject of several research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated an “underweight” rating on shares of Transocean in a research note on Wednesday, December 10th. Citigroup boosted their price target on Transocean from $4.25 to $4.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Pareto Securities downgraded Transocean from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $5.25 price objective for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, February 10th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Transocean in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, Fearnley Fonds cut Transocean from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 10th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Transocean currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $6.38.

About Transocean

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.