California Public Employees Retirement System Purchases 241,535 Shares of SLB Limited $SLB

California Public Employees Retirement System increased its position in shares of SLB Limited (NYSE:SLB) by 7.7% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 3,374,596 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after purchasing an additional 241,535 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in SLB were worth $173,420,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in SLB by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 186,455,878 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $7,156,177,000 after purchasing an additional 1,080,999 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of SLB by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 84,417,217 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $3,263,998,000 after buying an additional 799,218 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of SLB by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 54,006,438 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $2,072,844,000 after buying an additional 1,458,650 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in shares of SLB by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 37,095,243 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $1,423,716,000 after buying an additional 482,533 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of SLB by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 33,840,883 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $1,292,993,000 after buying an additional 510,747 shares during the period. 81.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Steve Matthew Gassen sold 53,379 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.18, for a total transaction of $2,998,832.22. Following the transaction, the executive vice president 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director La Chevardiere Patrick De sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.33, for a total value of $108,660.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 16,953 shares in the company, valued at approximately $921,056.49. This represents a 10.55% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.16% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SLB has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Wolfe Research began coverage on SLB in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $62.00 price target for the company. Raymond James Financial cut their price objective on SLB from $62.00 to $61.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 10th. UBS Group reduced their target price on SLB from $69.00 to $66.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their target price on SLB from $56.10 to $71.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $54.00 target price on shares of SLB in a research note on Wednesday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, SLB has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $60.30.

SLB Stock Performance

SLB stock opened at $47.01 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 1.34. The company has a market capitalization of $70.29 billion, a PE ratio of 20.53, a P/E/G ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $51.90 and a 200-day moving average price of $50.22. SLB Limited has a fifty-two week low of $31.64 and a fifty-two week high of $58.82.

SLB (NYSE:SLB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Saturday, April 25th. The oil and gas company reported $0.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.51 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $8.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.76 billion. SLB had a return on equity of 15.54% and a net margin of 9.26%.SLB’s revenue was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.72 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that SLB Limited will post 2.53 earnings per share for the current year.

SLB Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 9th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 3rd were issued a $0.295 dividend. This represents a $1.18 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 3rd. SLB’s dividend payout ratio is currently 51.53%.

About SLB

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.