Brokerages Set Precision Drilling Corporation (NYSE:PDS) Price Target at $98.00

Precision Drilling Corporation (NYSE:PDS) (TSE:PD) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seven brokerages that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, three have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $98.00.

Several brokerages have commented on PDS. Atb Cap Markets upgraded shares of Precision Drilling to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Wall Street Zen cut Precision Drilling from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, October 26th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Precision Drilling from $110.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 24th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Precision Drilling from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, TD Securities reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Precision Drilling in a research note on Thursday, October 23rd.

Precision Drilling Stock Up 2.9%

PDS opened at $61.90 on Thursday. Precision Drilling has a 1 year low of $36.20 and a 1 year high of $67.35. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $57.67 and a 200 day moving average price of $53.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a current ratio of 1.58. The company has a market cap of $811.39 million, a PE ratio of 23.01 and a beta of 1.15.

Precision Drilling (NYSE:PDS) (TSE:PD) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 22nd. The oil and gas company reported ($0.37) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.20 by ($1.57). Precision Drilling had a net margin of 3.17% and a return on equity of 3.44%. The firm had revenue of $331.90 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $471.38 million. Sell-side analysts expect that Precision Drilling will post 7.1 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Russell Investments Group Ltd. raised its holdings in Precision Drilling by 157.6% in the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 16,418 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $763,000 after purchasing an additional 10,045 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI increased its position in shares of Precision Drilling by 1.4% in the 1st quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 739,842 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $34,093,000 after buying an additional 10,216 shares in the last quarter. Aegis Financial Corp increased its position in shares of Precision Drilling by 58.1% in the 1st quarter. Aegis Financial Corp now owns 195,505 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $9,089,000 after buying an additional 71,867 shares in the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP raised its stake in Precision Drilling by 1,090.4% during the 1st quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 26,748 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $1,247,000 after buying an additional 24,501 shares during the period. Finally, Alberta Investment Management Corp bought a new position in Precision Drilling during the first quarter worth about $344,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 48.86% of the company’s stock.

About Precision Drilling

Precision Drilling Corporation, a drilling company, provides onshore drilling, completion, and production services to exploration and production companies in the oil and natural gas and geothermal industries in North America and the Middle East. The company operates through Contract Drilling Services and Completion and Production Services segments.