Benchmark Reaffirms “Buy” Rating for Transocean (NYSE:RIG)

Benchmark reaffirmed their buy rating on shares of Transocean (NYSE:RIG) in a research note issued to investors on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a $8.00 price objective on the offshore drilling services provider’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. Susquehanna upgraded shares of Transocean from a neutral rating to a positive rating and increased their price objective for the company from $5.50 to $9.00 in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Bank of America increased their target price on Transocean from $5.50 to $6.00 and gave the company an underperform rating in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Finally, Evercore ISI dropped their price objective on Transocean from $9.00 to $7.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 1st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $7.70.

Transocean Trading Up 10.6 %

Shares of NYSE RIG opened at $5.82 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $5.47 and a 200 day moving average price of $5.56. Transocean has a 52-week low of $4.45 and a 52-week high of $8.88. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65.

Transocean (NYSE:RIG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 29th. The offshore drilling services provider reported ($0.03) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.13) by $0.10. The business had revenue of $767.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $781.86 million. Transocean had a negative return on equity of 4.67% and a negative net margin of 13.27%. The business’s revenue was up 18.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($0.38) EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Transocean will post -0.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Transocean

In other news, Director (Cyprus) Ltd Perestroika acquired 2,000,000 shares of Transocean stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $6.01 per share, for a total transaction of $12,020,000.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 87,574,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $526,325,112.94. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 13.16% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Transocean

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of RIG. OLD Point Trust & Financial Services N A purchased a new stake in shares of Transocean in the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC acquired a new position in Transocean during the fourth quarter valued at $28,000. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Transocean in the second quarter valued at $30,000. Private Trust Co. NA grew its position in Transocean by 1,489.8% during the 4th quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 8,537 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock worth $54,000 after purchasing an additional 8,000 shares during the period. Finally, Fiducient Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Transocean during the 1st quarter valued at about $63,000. 67.73% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Transocean Company Profile

Transocean Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, provides offshore contract drilling services for oil and gas wells worldwide. It contracts mobile offshore drilling rigs, related equipment, and work crews to drill oil and gas wells. The company operates a fleet of mobile offshore drilling units, consisting of ultra-deepwater floaters and harsh environment floaters.