BWS Financial Reaffirms “Buy” Rating for Seadrill (NYSE:SDRL)

Seadrill (NYSE:SDRL)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reissued by stock analysts at BWS Financial in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $80.00 price target on the oil and gas company’s stock. BWS Financial’s target price points to a potential upside of 70.93% from the company’s current price.

SDRL has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Weiss Ratings raised Seadrill from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Friday. Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Seadrill in a research note on Monday, September 7th. Capital One Financial set a $55.00 target price on Seadrill and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Finally, Zacks Research raised Seadrill from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 14th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Seadrill presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $59.40.

Seadrill Trading Down 4.5%

Shares of Seadrill stock traded down $2.20 on Wednesday, reaching $46.80. The company had a trading volume of 1,005,916 shares, compared to its average volume of 779,467. The firm has a market cap of $2.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 1,560.13 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 2.50 and a quick ratio of 2.50. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $46.86 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $45.77. Seadrill has a 1 year low of $28.10 and a 1 year high of $55.47.

Seadrill (NYSE:SDRL) last announced its earnings results on Monday, August 10th. The oil and gas company reported $0.47 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.29 by $0.18. The firm had revenue of $430.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $388.46 million. Seadrill had a return on equity of 0.64% and a net margin of 0.07%. As a group, research analysts predict that Seadrill will post 0.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of SDRL. Tairen Capital Ltd bought a new position in Seadrill in the second quarter worth approximately $2,330,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in Seadrill by 10.1% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,553,281 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $161,671,000 after purchasing an additional 326,835 shares in the last quarter. Foresight Global Investors Inc. bought a new position in Seadrill in the second quarter worth approximately $3,574,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company bought a new position in Seadrill in the second quarter worth approximately $911,000. Finally, Elliott Investment Management L.P. grew its stake in Seadrill by 3.5% in the first quarter. Elliott Investment Management L.P. now owns 4,719,085 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $214,718,000 after purchasing an additional 160,327 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 95.67% of the company’s stock.

Seadrill Company Profile

Seadrill Limited is an offshore drilling contractor that provides drilling services to oil and gas companies worldwide. The company operates and manages offshore drilling units, including drillships and semisubmersible rigs, used to explore for and develop oil and natural gas resources in deepwater and other challenging marine environments.

Its services include contract drilling, rig operations, well construction support and related offshore services. Seadrill’s fleet is designed to serve a range of offshore projects, with operations and contract activity spanning major energy-producing regions such as the Gulf of Mexico, Brazil, the North Sea, West Africa and other international markets.

Seadrill was founded in 2005 and has expanded through fleet development, acquisitions and strategic transactions.