SLB Limited (NYSE:SLB) Stock Rated “Moderate Buy” by Wall Street Brokerages

Shares of SLB Limited (NYSE:SLB) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-seven ratings firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and twenty-four have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $62.38.

SLB has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on SLB in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $62.00 price target for the company. Zacks Research upgraded SLB from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on SLB from $63.00 to $62.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Evercore boosted their target price on SLB from $63.00 to $66.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 8th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $61.00 target price on shares of SLB in a report on Tuesday, June 16th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. QRG Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in SLB by 29.5% in the 2nd quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 149,030 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $6,928,000 after purchasing an additional 33,951 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. boosted its stake in shares of SLB by 7.5% during the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 23,820 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $1,107,000 after purchasing an additional 1,656 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of SLB by 0.8% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 91,222,641 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $4,267,269,000 after buying an additional 722,060 shares during the period. Security National Bank of Sioux City Iowa IA increased its position in shares of SLB by 23.5% during the second quarter. Security National Bank of Sioux City Iowa IA now owns 38,177 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $1,775,000 after buying an additional 7,260 shares during the period. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its position in shares of SLB by 0.5% during the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 1,107,878 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $51,505,000 after buying an additional 6,052 shares during the period. 81.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

SLB Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:SLB opened at $48.73 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $72.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $52.97 and a 200-day moving average price of $52.25. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. SLB has a 12 month low of $31.64 and a 12 month high of $60.46.

SLB (NYSE:SLB) last posted its earnings results on Saturday, July 25th. The oil and gas company reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by $0.04. SLB had a net margin of 8.53% and a return on equity of 14.05%. The company had revenue of $8.97 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.67 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.74 earnings per share. SLB’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that SLB will post 2.49 EPS for the current year.

SLB Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 8th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 2nd were issued a $0.2950 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 2nd. This represents a $1.18 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.4%. SLB’s payout ratio is 57.00%.

About SLB

SLB, formerly known as Schlumberger, is a global technology and services company serving the energy industry. The company provides equipment, technology, and technical expertise used to evaluate underground reservoirs, drill and complete wells, and optimize oil and natural gas production.

Its offerings include seismic and subsurface evaluation, well construction and drilling services, well completions, production systems, reservoir management, artificial lift, and related software and digital solutions.