Merit Financial Group LLC Buys 4,824 Shares of Schlumberger Limited (NYSE:SLB)

Merit Financial Group LLC increased its position in shares of Schlumberger Limited (NYSE:SLB) by 48.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 14,694 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,824 shares during the quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Schlumberger were worth $563,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its holdings in Schlumberger by 20.6% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 11,213,944 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $470,425,000 after buying an additional 1,916,851 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its position in shares of Schlumberger by 14.0% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 12,686,384 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $598,544,000 after acquiring an additional 1,560,684 shares during the last quarter. Weiss Asset Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Schlumberger in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $37,322,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Schlumberger by 395.7% in the 3rd quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 778,938 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $32,676,000 after purchasing an additional 621,809 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Schlumberger by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 90,209,014 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $3,808,476,000 after acquiring an additional 528,279 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.99% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Dianne B. Ralston sold 43,161 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.96, for a total value of $1,897,357.56. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 235,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,331,655.04. This represents a 15.52 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Ugo Prechner sold 7,000 shares of Schlumberger stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.20, for a total value of $309,400.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 11,240 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $496,808. This represents a 38.38 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 198,258 shares of company stock worth $8,732,604 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SLB has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on Schlumberger from $60.00 to $59.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Citigroup raised their price objective on Schlumberger from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Schlumberger to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Atb Cap Markets cut shares of Schlumberger from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Schlumberger from $49.00 to $46.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $55.81.

Schlumberger Trading Up 0.9 %

SLB opened at $41.99 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $59.29 billion, a PE ratio of 13.50, a P/E/G ratio of 3.58 and a beta of 1.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 1.45 and a quick ratio of 1.11. Schlumberger Limited has a fifty-two week low of $36.52 and a fifty-two week high of $55.69. The company’s 50-day moving average is $40.79 and its 200 day moving average is $42.79.

Schlumberger (NYSE:SLB) last announced its earnings results on Friday, January 17th. The oil and gas company reported $0.92 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $9.28 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9,241,140 billion. Schlumberger had a return on equity of 21.90% and a net margin of 12.29%. The company’s revenue was up 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.86 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Schlumberger Limited will post 3.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Schlumberger Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 5th will be paid a $0.285 dividend. This is an increase from Schlumberger’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 5th. This represents a $1.14 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.72%. Schlumberger’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 35.37%.

About Schlumberger

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.