129,428 Shares in SLB Limited $SLB Purchased by Heartland Advisors Inc.

Heartland Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of SLB Limited (NYSE:SLB) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 129,428 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,651,000.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SLB. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of SLB in the 4th quarter valued at about $809,557,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in shares of SLB by 56.8% during the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 24,615,243 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $1,264,977,000 after buying an additional 8,918,412 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in shares of SLB by 50.6% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 16,635,566 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $638,473,000 after buying an additional 5,589,585 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in SLB by 7.0% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 83,617,999 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $2,898,037,000 after buying an additional 5,466,786 shares during the period. Finally, Capital International Investors lifted its holdings in SLB by 86.9% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 11,627,072 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $446,247,000 after buying an additional 5,404,948 shares during the period. 81.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on SLB. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $54.00 target price on shares of SLB in a report on Wednesday. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $65.00 price target on shares of SLB in a research note on Sunday, April 26th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on SLB in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $62.00 price target on the stock. UBS Group reduced their price target on SLB from $69.00 to $66.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on SLB from $55.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, SLB presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $60.30.

SLB Stock Up 0.0%

SLB stock opened at $47.01 on Monday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $51.90 and its 200 day simple moving average is $50.31. SLB Limited has a fifty-two week low of $31.64 and a fifty-two week high of $58.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $70.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.53, a PEG ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 0.98.

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

SLB Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling at SLB

In other SLB news, Director La Chevardiere Patrick De sold 2,000 shares of SLB stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.33, for a total transaction of $108,660.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 16,953 shares in the company, valued at approximately $921,056.49. The trade was a 10.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Steve Matthew Gassen sold 53,379 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.18, for a total value of $2,998,832.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 47,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,664,111.78. The trade was a 52.96% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.16% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.