Investors Purchase High Volume of Transocean Call Options (NYSE:RIG)

Transocean Ltd. (NYSE:RIG) was the target of unusually large options trading on Monday. Stock investors purchased 44,363 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 83% compared to the typical daily volume of 24,273 call options.

Insider Transactions at Transocean

In related news, Director Chad C. Deaton acquired 35,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 2nd. The shares were purchased at an average price of $4.95 per share, for a total transaction of $173,250.00. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 237,421 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,175,233.95. The trade was a 17.29% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 9.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Transocean

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Transocean by 27.0% in the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,536 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 1,391 shares during the period. Fruth Investment Management boosted its holdings in Transocean by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Fruth Investment Management now owns 90,378 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock worth $373,000 after buying an additional 2,500 shares during the period. Annandale Capital LLC grew its stake in Transocean by 17.7% in the 4th quarter. Annandale Capital LLC now owns 16,600 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock valued at $69,000 after buying an additional 2,500 shares in the last quarter. Townsend & Associates Inc grew its stake in Transocean by 16.0% in the 4th quarter. Townsend & Associates Inc now owns 29,000 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock valued at $126,000 after buying an additional 4,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV raised its holdings in Transocean by 20.0% during the 3rd quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 24,175 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock valued at $75,000 after acquiring an additional 4,026 shares during the period. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on RIG. Susquehanna reduced their target price on Transocean from $8.00 to $7.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. Barclays raised shares of Transocean from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $6.00 to $8.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Transocean from $5.00 to $7.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 15th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Transocean in a report on Friday, July 17th. Finally, Fearnley Fonds upgraded shares of Transocean from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Transocean has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $6.82.

Transocean Price Performance

Shares of RIG traded up $0.43 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $5.70. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 46,070,270 shares, compared to its average volume of 40,262,832. The company has a quick ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56. Transocean has a one year low of $2.76 and a one year high of $7.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.75 and a beta of 1.32. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $5.38 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $5.91.

Transocean (NYSE:RIG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The offshore drilling services provider reported $0.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.01 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $966.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $956.64 million. Transocean had a positive return on equity of 2.60% and a negative net margin of 40.24%.Transocean’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned ($1.06) EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Transocean will post 0.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Transocean

Transocean Ltd. is a leading international provider of offshore contract drilling services for the oil and gas industry. The company specializes in the operation of mobile drilling units, including ultra-deepwater drillships, semisubmersible rigs and high-specification jackup rigs. Transocean’s fleet is designed to meet complex drilling requirements, from ultra-deepwater well construction to shelf exploration and development projects.

The company’s core services encompass the full spectrum of offshore drilling operations, including project and engineering management, marine operations, drilling supervision, and maintenance support.