Brandes Investment Partners LP Has $74.60 Million Stock Holdings in SLB Limited $SLB

Brandes Investment Partners LP increased its stake in shares of SLB Limited (NYSE:SLB) by 29.2% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,943,761 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after buying an additional 439,837 shares during the quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP’s holdings in SLB were worth $74,602,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in SLB. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in SLB by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 186,455,878 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $7,156,177,000 after acquiring an additional 1,080,999 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its position in SLB by 7.0% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 83,617,999 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $2,898,037,000 after acquiring an additional 5,466,786 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in SLB by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 33,840,883 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $1,292,993,000 after acquiring an additional 510,747 shares during the period. First Eagle Investment Management LLC increased its position in SLB by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 27,718,458 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $1,063,834,000 after acquiring an additional 174,564 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in SLB in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $809,557,000. 81.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of SLB from $53.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of SLB from $53.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 15th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $61.00 price target on shares of SLB in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $65.00 price target on shares of SLB in a research report on Sunday, April 26th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on shares of SLB from $59.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have given a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $60.67.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Steve Matthew Gassen sold 53,379 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.18, for a total value of $2,998,832.22. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 47,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,664,111.78. This represents a 52.96% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director La Chevardiere Patrick De sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.33, for a total transaction of $108,660.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 16,953 shares in the company, valued at approximately $921,056.49. This represents a 10.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Corporate insiders own 0.16% of the company’s stock.

SLB Trading Down 1.3%

NYSE:SLB opened at $55.80 on Wednesday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $54.35 and its 200-day moving average is $48.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 1.34. SLB Limited has a 52 week low of $31.64 and a 52 week high of $58.82. The firm has a market cap of $83.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.36, a P/E/G ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 0.70.

SLB (NYSE:SLB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Saturday, April 25th. The oil and gas company reported $0.52 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by $0.01. SLB had a net margin of 9.26% and a return on equity of 15.54%. The company had revenue of $8.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.76 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.72 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that SLB Limited will post 2.62 earnings per share for the current year.

SLB Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 9th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 3rd will be paid a $0.295 dividend. This represents a $1.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 3rd. SLB’s dividend payout ratio is currently 51.53%.

SLB Profile

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.