Zullo Investment Group Inc. Takes Position in Transocean Ltd. (NYSE:RIG)

Zullo Investment Group Inc. acquired a new position in Transocean Ltd. (NYSE:RIG) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 32,400 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $122,000.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in RIG. Pilgrim Global Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Transocean during the 3rd quarter worth $77,473,000. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in shares of Transocean by 33.9% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 15,393,873 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock worth $57,727,000 after purchasing an additional 3,895,880 shares during the last quarter. Kailix Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Transocean by 59.9% in the third quarter. Kailix Advisors LLC now owns 6,620,451 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock valued at $28,137,000 after purchasing an additional 2,481,059 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Europe London LLP bought a new stake in Transocean in the third quarter valued at about $8,935,000. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Transocean by 11.0% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 19,594,121 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock worth $83,275,000 after buying an additional 1,944,723 shares during the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Roderick James Mackenzie sold 22,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.05, for a total value of $89,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 229,596 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $929,863.80. The trade was a 8.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 13.16% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

RIG has been the subject of several analyst reports. Evercore ISI lowered Transocean from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $6.00 to $5.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Barclays raised shares of Transocean from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $4.50 target price for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. TD Cowen reduced their price target on shares of Transocean from $6.50 to $5.50 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Transocean to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Transocean from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $5.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday, December 6th. Two 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. According to MarketBeat, Transocean presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $5.94.

Transocean Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:RIG opened at $3.45 on Thursday. Transocean Ltd. has a one year low of $3.38 and a one year high of $6.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 1.64 and a quick ratio of 1.34. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $3.80 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $4.23.

Transocean (NYSE:RIG) last posted 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). Transocean had a negative net margin of 14.53% and a negative return on equity of 0.51%. The business had revenue of $952.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $962.28 million. Research analysts anticipate that Transocean Ltd. will post 0.14 earnings per share for the current year.

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.