BWS Financial Reiterates Buy Rating for Seadrill (NYSE:SDRL)

Seadrill (NYSE:SDRL)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by equities researchers at BWS Financial in a note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $80.00 price objective on the oil and gas company’s stock. BWS Financial’s price objective points to a potential upside of 103.85% from the company’s current price.

A number of other equities analysts also recently weighed in on SDRL. Zacks Research upgraded Seadrill from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 1st. Citigroup downgraded shares of Seadrill from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $35.00 to $32.00 in a research report on Monday, January 12th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Seadrill from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 6th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Seadrill from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 15th. Finally, Dnb Carnegie upgraded Seadrill to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $43.60.

Seadrill Trading Up 3.1%

Shares of SDRL traded up $1.16 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $39.24. The stock had a trading volume of 520,667 shares, compared to its average volume of 815,409. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $32.80 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $31.36. The firm has a market cap of $2.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 85.33 and a beta of 1.54. The company has a current ratio of 1.89, a quick ratio of 1.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. Seadrill has a fifty-two week low of $17.74 and a fifty-two week high of $39.68.

Seadrill (NYSE:SDRL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The oil and gas company reported ($0.17) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.26 by ($0.43). Seadrill had a net margin of 2.49% and a return on equity of 0.10%. The firm had revenue of $363.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $343.56 million. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Seadrill will post 1.86 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Seadrill

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of SDRL. Schf GPE LLC acquired a new position in shares of Seadrill during the 2nd quarter worth about $60,132,000. Patient Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Seadrill by 13.0% during the second quarter. Patient Capital Management LLC now owns 2,229,549 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $58,526,000 after buying an additional 256,836 shares during the last quarter. Goehring & Rozencwajg Associates LLC boosted its position in shares of Seadrill by 0.7% in the third quarter. Goehring & Rozencwajg Associates LLC now owns 1,695,114 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $51,209,000 after acquiring an additional 11,113 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its stake in shares of Seadrill by 0.8% in the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 1,681,094 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $50,786,000 after acquiring an additional 13,481 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Seadrill by 77.0% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,419,059 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $37,256,000 after acquiring an additional 617,521 shares during the period. 95.67% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.