Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund Buys New Position in Transocean Ltd. (NYSE:RIG)

Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund bought a new stake in Transocean Ltd. (NYSE:RIG) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 12,003 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $45,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Transocean by 4.1% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 17,245,298 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock valued at $73,307,000 after purchasing an additional 680,242 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in shares of Transocean by 33.9% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 15,393,873 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock valued at $57,727,000 after acquiring an additional 3,895,880 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Transocean by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,606,320 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock valued at $49,327,000 after acquiring an additional 826,229 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its stake in shares of Transocean by 60.1% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,623,924 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock valued at $6,902,000 after acquiring an additional 609,681 shares during the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Transocean by 335.3% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 196,699 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock valued at $836,000 after acquiring an additional 151,507 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Transocean from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $5.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Friday, December 6th. StockNews.com raised shares of Transocean to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Susquehanna dropped their price objective on shares of Transocean from $7.00 to $6.50 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 1st. TD Cowen dropped their price objective on shares of Transocean from $6.50 to $5.50 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Barclays raised shares of Transocean from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $4.50 price objective for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and three 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 $5.94.

Transocean Stock Up 3.6 %

Shares of NYSE:RIG opened at $3.57 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.12 billion, a P/E ratio of -4.88, a PEG ratio of 0.85 and a beta of 2.70. Transocean Ltd. has a 1 year low of $3.38 and a 1 year high of $6.88. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $3.80 and a 200-day simple moving average of $4.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.64.

Transocean (NYSE:RIG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 17th. The offshore drilling services provider reported ($0.09) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.02 by ($0.11). The company had revenue of $952.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $962.28 million. Transocean had a negative return on equity of 0.51% and a negative net margin of 14.53%. Equities analysts forecast that Transocean Ltd. will post 0.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Transocean news, EVP Roderick James Mackenzie sold 22,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3.85, for a total value of $84,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 313,072 shares in the company, valued at $1,205,327.20. This represents a 6.57 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 13.16% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About Transocean

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.