Seadrill (NYSE:SDRL) Upgraded at Zacks Research

Zacks Research upgraded shares of Seadrill (NYSE:SDRL) from a strong sell rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

Other analysts have also issued research reports about the company. BWS Financial restated a “buy” rating and issued a $80.00 price objective on shares of Seadrill in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Seadrill in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Dnb Carnegie raised Seadrill to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 4th. Citigroup cut shares of Seadrill from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $42.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Seadrill from $33.00 to $32.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Seadrill currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $41.60.

Seadrill Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE SDRL opened at $34.99 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $31.46 and a 200 day moving average price of $30.62. Seadrill has a 52 week low of $17.74 and a 52 week high of $39.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 1.89 and a current ratio of 1.89. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.18 billion, a PE ratio of 76.07 and a beta of 1.54.

Seadrill (NYSE:SDRL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 5th. The oil and gas company reported ($0.17) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.26 by ($0.43). Seadrill had a return on equity of 0.10% and a net margin of 2.49%.The firm had revenue of $363.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $343.56 million. Analysts predict that Seadrill will post 1.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Seadrill

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of SDRL. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Seadrill in the third quarter valued at about $61,000. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. bought a new stake in Seadrill in the 3rd quarter valued at about $202,000. Sig Brokerage LP grew its position in shares of Seadrill by 44.5% during the 3rd quarter. Sig Brokerage LP now owns 29,414 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $889,000 after purchasing an additional 9,056 shares in the last quarter. SIR Capital Management L.P. grew its position in shares of Seadrill by 804.1% during the 3rd quarter. SIR Capital Management L.P. now owns 377,647 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $11,409,000 after purchasing an additional 335,877 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Parallax Volatility Advisers L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Seadrill by 30.1% during the third quarter. Parallax Volatility Advisers L.P. now owns 117,101 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $3,538,000 after purchasing an additional 27,110 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 95.67% of the company’s stock.

Seadrill Company Profile

Seadrill Limited, trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol SDRL, is a leading provider of offshore drilling services to the global oil and gas industry. The company specializes in the design, construction, deployment and operation of mobile offshore drilling units, serving major exploration and production companies with turnkey drilling solutions.

Seadrill’s fleet comprises ultra-deepwater drillships, semi-submersible rigs and high-specification jack-up units capable of operating in some of the world’s most challenging offshore environments.