Schlumberger Limited (NYSE:SLB) Increases Dividend to $0.29 Per Share

Schlumberger Limited (NYSE:SLB) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, January 17th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 5th will be given a dividend of 0.285 per share by the oil and gas company on Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.14 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.77%. This is an increase from Schlumberger’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28.

Schlumberger has increased its dividend payment by an average of 30.1% per year over the last three years. Schlumberger has a payout ratio of 28.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Schlumberger to earn $3.35 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.10 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 32.8%.

Schlumberger Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:SLB opened at $41.16 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $40.89 and a 200 day moving average price of $42.93. The company has a market cap of $58.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.24, a PEG ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.52. Schlumberger has a twelve month low of $36.52 and a twelve month high of $55.69.

Schlumberger (NYSE:SLB) last announced its earnings results on Friday, January 17th. The oil and gas company reported $0.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $9.28 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9,241,140 billion. Schlumberger had a net margin of 12.44% and a return on equity of 21.84%. Schlumberger’s revenue was up 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.86 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Schlumberger will post 3.39 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Abdellah Merad sold 60,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.90, for a total transaction of $2,514,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 211,937 shares in the company, valued at $8,880,160.30. The trade was a 22.06 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SLB has been the subject of a number of research reports. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $69.00 price objective on shares of Schlumberger in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on shares of Schlumberger from $53.00 to $48.00 in a research note on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on Schlumberger from $60.00 to $59.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Schlumberger to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, Piper Sandler started coverage on Schlumberger in a report on Thursday, December 19th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $47.00 price objective for the company. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $56.03.

Schlumberger Company Profile

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.