Raymond James Financial Inc. Takes Position in Core Laboratories Inc. (NYSE:CLB)

Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Core Laboratories Inc. (NYSE:CLB) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 390,554 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,760,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. owned 0.83% of Core Laboratories as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of CLB. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN raised its stake in Core Laboratories by 26.7% during the third quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 5,653,591 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $104,761,000 after acquiring an additional 1,192,871 shares during the period. Eagle Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Core Laboratories in the third quarter worth $3,531,000. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its position in Core Laboratories by 19.5% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 990,267 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $18,350,000 after buying an additional 161,278 shares during the period. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC bought a new stake in Core Laboratories in the fourth quarter valued at $1,960,000. Finally, Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Core Laboratories by 288.2% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 83,570 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $1,549,000 after acquiring an additional 62,042 shares during the period. 97.81% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Citigroup raised shares of Core Laboratories from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $15.00 to $16.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have given a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Core Laboratories has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $17.50.

Core Laboratories Stock Performance

Shares of CLB stock opened at $15.31 on Monday. Core Laboratories Inc. has a 12-month low of $12.95 and a 12-month high of $25.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 2.32 and a quick ratio of 1.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $716.69 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 2.38. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $16.79 and a 200 day simple moving average of $18.17.

Core Laboratories (NYSE:CLB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The oil and gas company reported $0.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.23. Core Laboratories had a return on equity of 16.24% and a net margin of 5.99%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Core Laboratories Inc. will post 0.96 EPS for the current year.

Core Laboratories Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th were paid a dividend of $0.01 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $0.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.26%. Core Laboratories’s payout ratio is 6.06%.

Core Laboratories Company Profile

Core Laboratories Inc provides reservoir description and production enhancement services and products to the oil and gas industry in the United States, and internationally. It operates through Reservoir Description and Production Enhancement segments. The Reservoir Description segment includes the characterization of petroleum reservoir rock and reservoir fluid samples to enhance production and improve recovery of crude oil and gas from its clients' reservoirs.