Transocean Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:RIG)

Transocean Ltd. (NYSE:RIG) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Investors acquired 20,324 put options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 32% compared to the typical daily volume of 15,440 put options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Susquehanna dropped their price target on shares of Transocean from $7.00 to $6.50 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Evercore ISI downgraded shares of Transocean from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $6.00 to $5.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Transocean to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Transocean from $4.50 to $4.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Benchmark reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Transocean in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $5.75.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Transocean news, EVP Roderick James Mackenzie sold 22,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3.85, for a total value of $84,700.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 313,072 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,205,327.20. The trade was a 6.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 13.16% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Transocean

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Pilgrim Global Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Transocean in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $77,473,000. American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in 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. Renaissance Technologies LLC purchased a new position in shares of Transocean during the 4th quarter worth $16,608,000. SIR Capital Management L.P. bought a new stake in shares of Transocean during the 4th quarter valued at $14,976,000. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake 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 in the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Transocean Stock Performance

RIG stock traded down $0.09 on Friday, hitting $2.96. The company had a trading volume of 25,562,131 shares, compared to its average volume of 28,326,006. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. Transocean has a 12-month low of $2.95 and a 12-month high of $6.88. The stock has a market cap of $2.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.05, a P/E/G ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 2.70. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $3.75 and its 200 day simple moving average is $4.15.

Transocean (NYSE:RIG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 17th. The offshore drilling services provider reported ($0.09) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.02 by ($0.11). The firm had revenue of $952.00 million during 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, equities research analysts expect that Transocean will post 0.14 earnings per share 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.