Schlumberger Limited $SLB Stake Reduced by Louisiana State Employees Retirement System

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System reduced its stake in shares of Schlumberger Limited (NYSE:SLB) by 4.6% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 71,800 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after selling 3,500 shares during the quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Schlumberger were worth $2,427,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. DMC Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Schlumberger by 3.7% in the second quarter. DMC Group LLC now owns 17,958 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $607,000 after purchasing an additional 646 shares in the last quarter. BankPlus Trust Department grew its stake in shares of Schlumberger by 1,083.4% in the second quarter. BankPlus Trust Department now owns 6,000 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $203,000 after purchasing an additional 5,493 shares in the last quarter. Shell Asset Management Co. grew its stake in shares of Schlumberger by 48.1% in the second quarter. Shell Asset Management Co. now owns 62,737 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $2,121,000 after purchasing an additional 20,387 shares in the last quarter. Godsey & Gibb Inc. grew its stake in shares of Schlumberger by 9.6% in the second quarter. Godsey & Gibb Inc. now owns 493,092 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $16,667,000 after purchasing an additional 43,135 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS grew its stake in shares of Schlumberger by 13.4% in the second quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS now owns 656,326 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $22,352,000 after purchasing an additional 77,400 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 81.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently issued reports on SLB. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Schlumberger in a research note on Wednesday. Susquehanna decreased their target price on Schlumberger from $44.00 to $42.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 21st. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on Schlumberger from $54.00 to $52.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Wells Fargo & Company cut Schlumberger from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, July 20th. Finally, Melius Research began coverage on Schlumberger in a research note on Wednesday, August 20th. They set a “buy” rating and a $82.00 target price for the company. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $52.18.

Schlumberger Trading Down 4.2%

Shares of NYSE SLB opened at $31.75 on Friday. Schlumberger Limited has a 12 month low of $31.11 and a 12 month high of $44.97. The company has a market cap of $47.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.87, a P/E/G ratio of 9.21 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 1.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $34.53 and a 200-day simple moving average of $34.91.

Schlumberger (NYSE:SLB) last announced its earnings results on Friday, July 18th. The oil and gas company reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.73 by $0.01. Schlumberger had a return on equity of 20.99% and a net margin of 11.53%.The business had revenue of $8.55 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.51 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.85 earnings per share. Schlumberger’s revenue was down 6.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Schlumberger Limited will post 3.38 EPS for the current year.

Schlumberger Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 9th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.285 per share. This represents a $1.14 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 3rd. Schlumberger’s dividend payout ratio is currently 39.04%.

Insider Activity at Schlumberger

In other news, insider Dianne B. Ralston sold 39,727 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.08, for a total transaction of $1,433,350.16. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 202,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,295,412.08. This represents a 16.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.22% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About Schlumberger

Schlumberger Limited engages in the provision of technology for the energy industry worldwide. The company operates through four divisions: Digital & Integration, Reservoir Performance, Well Construction, and Production Systems. The company provides field development and hydrocarbon production, carbon management, and integration of adjacent energy systems; reservoir interpretation and data processing services for exploration data; and well construction and production improvement services and products.