Insider Buying: Transocean (NYSE:RIG) Director Acquires 1,500,000 Shares of Stock

Transocean Ltd. (NYSE:RIG) Director Frederik Wilhelm Mohn acquired 1,500,000 shares of Transocean stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 24th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $4.02 per share, with a total value of $6,030,000.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 96,574,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $388,231,073.88. This represents a 1.58% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website.

Frederik Wilhelm Mohn also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Friday, September 26th, Frederik Wilhelm Mohn acquired 4,000,000 shares of Transocean stock. The shares were purchased at an average price of $3.05 per share, for a total transaction of $12,200,000.00.

Transocean Stock Up 0.5%

Transocean stock traded up $0.02 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $4.04. The company had a trading volume of 37,655,718 shares, compared to its average volume of 39,045,379. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $3.61 and its 200-day moving average is $3.13. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.45 billion, a P/E ratio of -1.23 and a beta of 2.65. Transocean Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $1.97 and a fifty-two week high of $4.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 0.99.

Transocean (NYSE:RIG) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The offshore drilling services provider reported $0.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.04 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of ($1,894.00) million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.01 billion. Transocean had a negative net margin of 75.71% and a positive return on equity of 0.43%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Transocean Ltd. will post 0.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Dalal Street LLC acquired a new stake in Transocean in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $76,260,000. Ghisallo Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Transocean in the third quarter valued at approximately $57,720,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Transocean by 19.3% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 94,519,248 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock worth $294,900,000 after purchasing an additional 15,315,289 shares in the last quarter. Zimmer Partners LP bought a new stake in shares of Transocean in the third quarter worth $30,262,000. Finally, Ninepoint Partners LP acquired a new position in Transocean during the third quarter worth $18,720,000. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on RIG. Barclays lifted their target price on Transocean from $4.00 to $4.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Transocean in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Transocean from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, August 10th. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Transocean from $3.50 to $4.25 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 14th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $4.39.

About Transocean

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.