Sasol Ltd. (NYSE:SSL) Stock Now Rated “Hold” by Wall Street Analysts

Sasol Ltd. (NYSE:SSL) has been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the seven brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have issued a hold recommendation, two have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company.

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Weiss Ratings upgraded Sasol from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 8th. Zacks Research upgraded Sasol from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Wall Street Zen raised Sasol from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, September 5th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded shares of Sasol from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 9th.

Sasol Trading Up 1.2%

SSL stock opened at $14.09 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 1.79 and a quick ratio of 1.17. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $14.91 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $12.14. Sasol has a 1-year low of $5.97 and a 1-year high of $18.19.

Sasol (NYSE:SSL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 14th. The oil and gas company reported $0.56 EPS for the quarter. The business had revenue of $4.61 billion for the quarter. On average, equities analysts expect that Sasol will post 2.99 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Walt Bruns sold 1,798 shares of Sasol stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $14.14, for a total value of $25,423.72. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 54,819 shares in the company, valued at approximately $775,140.66. This trade represents a 3.18% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Victor Bester sold 2,852 shares of Sasol stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $12.70, for a total transaction of $36,220.40. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 26,855 shares in the company, valued at approximately $341,058.50. This trade represents a 9.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders sold 60,412 shares of company stock worth $800,983. 1.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Sasol

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of SSL. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in shares of Sasol by 123.3% in the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,381,209 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $13,563,000 after acquiring an additional 762,796 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in shares of Sasol by 3.1% in the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 796,208 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $10,319,000 after purchasing an additional 23,994 shares in the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA bought a new stake in Sasol during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $9,179,000. Ritholtz Wealth Management raised its position in shares of Sasol by 72.0% during the 3rd quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 165,029 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $2,281,000 after purchasing an additional 69,090 shares during the period. Finally, Quantinno Capital Management LP boosted its stake in Sasol by 40.6% in the 1st quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 166,465 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $2,157,000 after purchasing an additional 48,086 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 1.21% of the company’s stock.

About Sasol

Sasol is an integrated energy and chemicals company headquartered in South Africa. Founded in 1950, it developed expertise in converting coal and natural gas into liquid fuels and chemical products, including through Fischer-Tropsch technology. The company produces and markets fuels, such as gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel, as well as a broad range of chemicals used in industries including manufacturing, agriculture and consumer goods. Its activities span energy and chemicals value chains, from feedstock processing to product marketing.