Tidewater (NYSE:TDW) Board Authorizes Share Repurchase Program

Tidewater (NYSE:TDW) announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Thursday, May 2nd, RTT News reports. The company plans to repurchase $18.10 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the oil and gas company to reacquire up to 0.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

TDW has been the topic of several research reports. StockNews.com upgraded Tidewater from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 4th. BTIG Research upped their price target on Tidewater from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. Pickering Energy Partners initiated coverage on shares of Tidewater in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. They issued an “outperform” rating for the company. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of Tidewater from $87.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, March 4th. Finally, Johnson Rice assumed coverage on shares of Tidewater in a report on Friday, February 9th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $88.00 price target for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $93.00.

Tidewater Stock Up 13.4 %

Tidewater stock opened at $106.51 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 1.70 and a current ratio of 1.80. Tidewater has a one year low of $39.53 and a one year high of $107.45. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $88.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $73.92. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 58.20 and a beta of 1.21.

Tidewater (NYSE:TDW) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The oil and gas company reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.40. The firm had revenue of $321.20 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $312.05 million. Tidewater had a net margin of 9.62% and a return on equity of 13.37%. Tidewater’s quarterly revenue was up 66.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.23 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Tidewater will post 4.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Tidewater

In other news, COO David E. Darling sold 17,821 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.08, for a total transaction of $1,462,747.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 85,959 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,055,514.72. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Tidewater news, CFO Samuel R. Rubio sold 19,641 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.36, for a total value of $1,597,991.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 98,036 shares in the company, valued at $7,976,208.96. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO David E. Darling sold 17,821 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.08, for a total value of $1,462,747.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 85,959 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,055,514.72. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 45,462 shares of company stock valued at $3,716,739. Company insiders own 9.59% of the company’s stock.

About Tidewater

Tidewater Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides offshore support vessels and marine support services to the offshore energy industry through the operation of a fleet of marine service vessels worldwide. It provides services in support of offshore oil and gas exploration, field development, and production, as well as windfarm development and maintenance, including towing of and anchor handling for mobile offshore drilling units; transporting supplies and personnel necessary to sustain drilling, workover, and production activities; offshore construction, and seismic and subsea support; geotechnical survey support for windfarm construction; and various specialized services, such as pipe and cable laying.