Seadrill (NYSE:SDRL) Stock Price Up 5.3% – Should You Buy?

Shares of Seadrill Limited (NYSE:SDRL) traded up 5.3% during trading on Friday. The stock traded as high as $50.95 and last traded at $51.80. 31,312 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 96% from the average session volume of 772,829 shares. The stock had previously closed at $49.19.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Capital One Financial set a $55.00 price target on shares of Seadrill and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. BWS Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $80.00 price objective on shares of Seadrill in a research note on Wednesday, October 14th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Seadrill from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Friday, October 9th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Seadrill from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 14th. Finally, Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Seadrill in a research note on Monday, September 7th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $59.40.

Seadrill Stock Up 6.9%

The business’s 50 day moving average is $47.25 and its 200 day moving average is $45.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 2.50 and a current ratio of 2.50. The company has a market capitalization of $3.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 1,748.13 and a beta of 1.25.

Seadrill (NYSE:SDRL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 10th. The oil and gas company reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.29 by $0.18. Seadrill had a net margin of 0.07% and a return on equity of 0.64%. The firm had revenue of $430.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $388.46 million. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Seadrill Limited will post 0.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Seadrill

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Tairen Capital Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Seadrill in the second quarter worth about $2,330,000. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new stake in shares of Seadrill during the second quarter worth about $19,392,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company purchased a new stake in Seadrill in the second quarter valued at approximately $911,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position 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 valued at $161,671,000 after buying an additional 326,835 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Foresight Global Investors Inc. purchased a new stake in Seadrill in the second quarter valued at approximately $3,574,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.67% of the company’s stock.

Seadrill Company Profile

Seadrill Limited (NYSE: SDRL) is an offshore drilling contractor that provides drilling services to oil and gas companies. The company operates a fleet of mobile offshore drilling units, including ultra-deepwater drillships and semisubmersible rigs, which are used to explore for and develop hydrocarbon resources beneath the seabed.

Seadrill’s services include contract drilling, rig operations, well construction support and related offshore services. Its modern, high-specification fleet is designed to work in challenging deepwater and harsh-environment locations.