State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Boosts Stock Position in SLB Limited $SLB

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D increased its holdings in SLB Limited (NYSE:SLB) by 13.3% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 654,008 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after buying an additional 76,875 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in SLB were worth $22,478,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Twin Peaks Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of SLB during the second quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Root Financial Partners LLC bought a new stake in SLB in the third quarter valued at $29,000. Corsicana & Co. purchased a new position in SLB during the 3rd quarter valued at $31,000. Strengthening Families & Communities LLC purchased a new position in SLB during the 3rd quarter valued at $31,000. Finally, NewSquare Capital LLC raised its holdings in SLB by 51.4% in the 2nd quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 1,004 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 341 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 81.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus set a $56.00 target price on shares of SLB in a research note on Monday, January 26th. Evercore set a $54.00 price objective on shares of SLB and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 6th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on SLB from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 18th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their target price on SLB from $51.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 26th. Finally, UBS Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of SLB in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $52.38.

SLB Price Performance

SLB stock opened at $50.37 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 1.33. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $44.22 and a 200-day moving average price of $38.27. SLB Limited has a 52-week low of $31.11 and a 52-week high of $52.40. The firm has a market capitalization of $75.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.25, a PEG ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 0.72.

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

SLB Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 11th will be paid a $0.295 dividend. This represents a $1.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date 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 presently 49.79%.

Insider Activity at SLB

In other SLB news, CFO Stephane Biguet sold 61,017 shares of SLB stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.70, for a total value of $3,032,544.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 155,548 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,730,735.60. The trade was a 28.17% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Abdellah Merad sold 60,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.70, for a total transaction of $2,982,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 140,602 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,987,919.40. This represents a 29.91% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 162,402 shares of company stock worth $7,993,676 in the last ninety days. 0.22% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.