Transocean Ltd. (NYSE:RIG) Shares Bought by Prudential Financial Inc.

Prudential Financial Inc. grew its position in Transocean Ltd. (NYSE:RIG) by 899.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 495,675 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 446,100 shares during the period. Prudential Financial Inc. owned approximately 0.06% of Transocean worth $1,859,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of RIG. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Transocean by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 78,811,863 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock worth $295,544,000 after buying an additional 931,684 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Transocean by 11.0% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 19,594,121 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock valued at $83,275,000 after acquiring an additional 1,944,723 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in shares of Transocean by 51.5% in the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 19,257,437 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock worth $72,215,000 after acquiring an additional 6,542,271 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Transocean by 4.1% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 17,245,298 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock worth $73,307,000 after purchasing an additional 680,242 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in Transocean by 33.9% during the fourth 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 purchasing an additional 3,895,880 shares during the period. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Transocean

In other Transocean news, EVP Roderick James Mackenzie sold 22,000 shares of Transocean stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $3.85, for a total transaction of $84,700.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 313,072 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,205,327.20. The trade was a 6.57 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 12.54% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on RIG shares. SEB Equity Research set a $2.80 price target on Transocean in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Transocean from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $5.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday, December 6th. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on Transocean from $6.50 to $5.50 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Transocean from $4.50 to $4.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of Transocean from $4.50 to $3.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $5.03.

Transocean Price Performance

Shares of NYSE RIG opened at $2.15 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.47. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $3.30 and a 200 day moving average of $3.86. The firm has a market cap of $1.89 billion, a PE ratio of -2.94, a PEG ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 2.72. Transocean Ltd. has a one year low of $2.11 and a one year high of $6.88.

Transocean (NYSE:RIG) last released its earnings results on Monday, February 17th. The offshore drilling services provider reported ($0.09) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.02 by ($0.11). The company had revenue of $952.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $962.28 million. Transocean had a negative return on equity of 0.52% and a negative net margin of 14.53%. As a group, research analysts predict that Transocean Ltd. will post 0.14 EPS for the current fiscal 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.