Seadrill (NYSE:SDRL) Upgraded by Zacks Research to “Hold” Rating

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

SDRL has been the subject of several other research reports. Dnb Carnegie raised shares of Seadrill to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 4th. BWS Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $80.00 price target on shares of Seadrill in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. Barclays cut 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. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Seadrill in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Citigroup lowered Seadrill from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $42.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $41.60.

Seadrill Trading Up 1.1%

NYSE:SDRL opened at $34.99 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $31.46 and its two-hundred day moving average is $30.60. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.18 billion, a PE ratio of 76.07 and a beta of 1.54. Seadrill has a 12 month low of $17.74 and a 12 month high of $39.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 1.89 and a quick ratio of 1.89.

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Seadrill

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Schf GPE LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Seadrill in the 2nd quarter valued at about $60,132,000. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Seadrill by 77.0% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,419,059 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $37,256,000 after buying an additional 617,521 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in Seadrill by 498.2% in the second quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 614,849 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $16,140,000 after buying an additional 512,074 shares during the last quarter. Packer & Co Ltd acquired a new stake in Seadrill during the third quarter valued at approximately $13,597,000. Finally, DNB Asset Management AS lifted its holdings in Seadrill by 288.4% during the 2nd quarter. DNB Asset Management AS now owns 594,256 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $15,599,000 after buying an additional 441,266 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 95.67% of the company’s stock.

About Seadrill

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.