State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Increases Holdings in SLB Limited $SLB

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D increased its stake in shares of SLB Limited (NYSE:SLB) by 13.3% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 654,008 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after purchasing 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 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Brighton Jones LLC grew its stake in SLB by 21.4% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 6,611 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $253,000 after acquiring an additional 1,166 shares in the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC bought a new position in SLB in the 4th quarter valued at $238,000. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its holdings in SLB by 10.2% in the 2nd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,056,967 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $70,204,000 after purchasing an additional 191,205 shares during the period. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. grew its position in shares of SLB by 11.8% during the 2nd quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 18,362 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $621,000 after purchasing an additional 1,934 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BKM Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of SLB by 14.2% in the second quarter. BKM Wealth Management LLC now owns 18,009 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $609,000 after purchasing an additional 2,236 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on SLB. Evercore set a $54.00 price objective on SLB and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 6th. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of SLB in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of SLB from $43.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 26th. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of SLB from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Finally, Argus upgraded shares of SLB to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 26th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, SLB has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $52.38.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Stephane Biguet sold 61,017 shares of the firm’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 $3,032,544.90. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 155,548 shares in the company, valued at $7,730,735.60. This trade represents a 28.17% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Howard Guild sold 13,268 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.70, for a total value of $659,419.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 22,407 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,113,627.90. The trade was a 37.19% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 162,402 shares of company stock worth $7,993,676 in the last 90 days. 0.22% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

SLB Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of NYSE SLB opened at $50.37 on Monday. SLB Limited has a one year low of $31.11 and a one year high of $52.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 1.33 and a quick ratio of 0.98. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $44.22 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $38.27. The stock has a market capitalization of $75.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.25, a PEG ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 0.72.

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

SLB Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 11th will be issued a $0.295 dividend. This is an increase from SLB’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.29. This represents a $1.18 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, February 11th. SLB’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.79%.

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.