Legal & General Group Plc Sells 6,831 Shares of Core Laboratories Inc. (NYSE:CLB)

Legal & General Group Plc lowered its stake in Core Laboratories Inc. (NYSE:CLB) by 4.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 145,279 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after selling 6,831 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned 0.31% of Core Laboratories worth $2,515,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Core Laboratories by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,058,620 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $18,329,000 after purchasing an additional 5,416 shares in the last quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp grew its stake in shares of Core Laboratories by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 617,336 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $10,686,000 after buying an additional 16,503 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its position in Core Laboratories by 6.3% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 443,621 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $7,679,000 after buying an additional 26,237 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Core Laboratories during the 4th quarter worth approximately $6,760,000. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Core Laboratories by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 229,096 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $3,966,000 after acquiring an additional 6,827 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.81% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on Core Laboratories from $19.00 to $15.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Core Laboratories from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $15.00 to $16.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have assigned a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $15.75.

Core Laboratories Stock Down 2.8 %

CLB stock opened at $12.09 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $564.77 million, a PE ratio of 18.32, a P/E/G ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.99. The company has a quick ratio of 1.71, a current ratio of 2.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. Core Laboratories Inc. has a twelve month low of $10.14 and a twelve month high of $25.13. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $14.23 and its 200-day moving average is $17.30.

Core Laboratories (NYSE:CLB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The oil and gas company reported $0.23 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.23. Core Laboratories had a return on equity of 16.24% and a net margin of 5.99%. Sell-side analysts expect that Core Laboratories Inc. will post 0.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Core Laboratories Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 5th will be given a $0.01 dividend. This represents a $0.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.33%. 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.