Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. Reduces Position in Transocean Ltd. (NYSE:RIG)

Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. lessened its stake in shares of Transocean Ltd. (NYSE:RIG) by 12.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 87,284 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock after selling 12,001 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Transocean were worth $554,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Transocean by 9.4% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,315,980 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock valued at $148,981,000 after acquiring an additional 5,165,717 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. lifted its stake in Transocean by 64.4% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 27,992,307 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock valued at $178,031,000 after acquiring an additional 10,962,276 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in Transocean by 60.7% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 18,330,357 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock valued at $83,586,000 after acquiring an additional 6,925,085 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Transocean by 4.3% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 12,924,313 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock valued at $59,071,000 after acquiring an additional 535,577 shares during the period. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its stake in Transocean by 95.2% during the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 11,892,498 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock valued at $75,637,000 after acquiring an additional 5,800,435 shares during the period. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have commented on RIG. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Transocean from $5.50 to $6.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Monday. Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of Transocean from $9.00 to $7.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Transocean from $7.00 to $6.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Transocean to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, Susquehanna upgraded shares of Transocean from a “neutral” rating to a “positive” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $5.50 to $9.00 in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $8.22.

Transocean Stock Performance

NYSE:RIG opened at $5.56 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a current ratio of 1.52. The company has a fifty day moving average of $5.63 and a two-hundred day moving average of $6.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.55 billion, a PE ratio of -4.37 and a beta of 2.78. Transocean Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $4.45 and a fifty-two week high of $8.88.

Transocean (NYSE:RIG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 19th. The offshore drilling services provider reported ($0.09) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.21) by $0.12. The company had revenue of $741.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $779.17 million. Transocean had a negative net margin of 33.69% and a negative return on equity of 7.13%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted ($0.49) earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Transocean Ltd. will post 0.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Transocean Company Profile

Transocean Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, provides offshore contract drilling services for oil and gas wells worldwide. It contracts mobile offshore drilling rigs, related equipment, and work crews to drill oil and gas wells. The company operates a fleet of mobile offshore drilling units, consisting of ultra-deepwater floaters and harsh environment floaters.