Core Laboratories (NYSE:CLB) Trading 5% Higher

Core Laboratories Inc. (NYSE:CLB)’s stock price traded up 5% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $17.53 and last traded at $17.53. 123,200 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 74% from the average session volume of 465,090 shares. The stock had previously closed at $16.69.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of Core Laboratories from $21.00 to $17.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 5th. Bank of America reduced their target price on shares of Core Laboratories from $17.00 to $16.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Core Laboratories from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, January 20th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have given a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Core Laboratories presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $18.50.

Core Laboratories Stock Performance

The company’s fifty day moving average is $16.01 and its 200 day moving average is $17.87. The company has a market capitalization of $796.15 million, a P/E ratio of 19.43, a P/E/G ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 2.40. The company has a current ratio of 2.53, a quick ratio of 1.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71.

Core Laboratories (NYSE:CLB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 31st. The oil and gas company reported $0.19 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.20 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $128.21 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $127.80 million. Core Laboratories had a return on equity of 15.19% and a net margin of 8.03%. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.23 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Core Laboratories Inc. will post 0.81 earnings per share for the current year.

Core Laboratories Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 4th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 12th were issued a $0.01 dividend. This represents a $0.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.24%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 9th. Core Laboratories’s payout ratio is 4.65%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of CLB. BlackRock Inc. boosted its holdings in Core Laboratories by 37.8% in the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 7,927,366 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $184,311,000 after purchasing an additional 2,173,250 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Core Laboratories by 44.4% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,848,741 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $42,983,000 after purchasing an additional 568,196 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in Core Laboratories by 167.6% in the 1st quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 902,625 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $19,903,000 after purchasing an additional 565,344 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Core Laboratories by 108.4% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 893,278 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $20,769,000 after purchasing an additional 464,644 shares during the period. Finally, Ariel Investments LLC raised its position in shares of Core Laboratories by 5.1% during the 1st quarter. Ariel Investments LLC now owns 8,198,544 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $259,320,000 after buying an additional 394,237 shares in the last quarter. 97.81% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Core Laboratories

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.