Alberta Investment Management Corp Acquires Shares of 97,000 SLB Limited $SLB

Alberta Investment Management Corp acquired a new stake in shares of SLB Limited (NYSE:SLB) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 97,000 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,334,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Synergy Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of SLB by 100.0% in the 3rd quarter. Synergy Asset Management LLC now owns 80,830 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $2,732,000 after buying an additional 40,415 shares during the last quarter. Americana Partners LLC boosted its stake in SLB by 10.1% in the third quarter. Americana Partners LLC now owns 248,057 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $8,526,000 after acquiring an additional 22,706 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd grew its holdings in SLB by 13.8% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 210,056 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $7,220,000 after purchasing an additional 25,417 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in shares of SLB by 4.9% during the third quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,157,885 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $72,354,000 after purchasing an additional 100,918 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG lifted its holdings in shares of SLB by 1,937.4% during the 3rd quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 996,948 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $34,265,000 after purchasing an additional 948,015 shares during the last quarter. 81.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Dianne B. Ralston sold 18,617 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.50, for a total transaction of $921,541.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 224,097 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,092,801.50. This represents a 7.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Howard Guild sold 13,268 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.70, for a total transaction of $659,419.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 22,407 shares in the company, valued at $1,113,627.90. This represents a 37.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 162,402 shares of company stock worth $7,993,676. Corporate insiders own 0.22% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently weighed in on SLB. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on SLB from $47.60 to $52.30 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on SLB from $51.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, February 1st. TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of SLB from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Evercore set a $54.00 target price on shares of SLB and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 6th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus set a $56.00 price target on shares of SLB in a report on Monday, January 26th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $52.38.

SLB Price Performance

Shares of SLB stock opened at $51.54 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $77.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.51 and a beta of 0.73. SLB Limited has a 12-month low of $31.11 and a 12-month high of $52.40. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 1.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $45.15 and a 200-day moving average of $38.68.

SLB (NYSE:SLB) last posted its earnings results on Friday, January 23rd. The oil and gas company reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.74 by $0.04. SLB had a return on equity of 17.45% and a net margin of 9.45%.The firm had revenue of $9.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.54 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.92 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that SLB Limited will post 3.38 earnings per share for the current year.

SLB Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.295 per share. This represents a $1.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 11th. This is a positive change from SLB’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.29. SLB’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 49.79%.

About SLB

SLB (NYSE: SLB), historically known as Schlumberger, is a leading global provider of technology, integrated project management and information solutions for the energy industry. Founded by Conrad and Marcel Schlumberger in 1926, the company develops and supplies products and services used across the exploration, drilling, completion and production phases of oil and gas development. Its offerings are intended to help operators characterize reservoirs, drill and complete wells, optimize production and manage field operations throughout the asset lifecycle.

SLB’s product and service portfolio spans reservoir characterization and well testing, wireline and logging services, directional drilling and drilling tools, well construction and completion technologies, production systems, and subsea equipment.