Core Laboratories Inc. (NYSE:CLB) Given Average Recommendation of “Reduce” by Brokerages

Core Laboratories Inc. (NYSE:CLB) has received a consensus rating of “Reduce” from the four brokerages that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation and two have assigned a hold recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $18.50.

A number of brokerages have commented on CLB. 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 report on Monday, February 5th. Bank of America dropped 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 upgraded shares of Core Laboratories from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, January 20th.

Institutional Trading of Core Laboratories

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Core Laboratories by 39.7% in the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 328,435 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $7,886,000 after purchasing an additional 93,354 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in Core Laboratories by 25.3% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 436,459 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $10,479,000 after buying an additional 88,013 shares during the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG raised its position in Core Laboratories by 18.2% during the 3rd quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 27,524 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $661,000 after buying an additional 4,247 shares during the last quarter. Essex Investment Management Co. LLC purchased a new position in Core Laboratories during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,071,000. Finally, Toroso Investments LLC raised its position in Core Laboratories by 6.9% during the 3rd quarter. Toroso Investments LLC now owns 38,348 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $921,000 after buying an additional 2,480 shares during the last quarter. 97.81% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Core Laboratories Trading Down 3.1 %

Shares of CLB opened at $16.71 on Friday. Core Laboratories has a 1-year low of $13.82 and a 1-year high of $27.94. The company has a current ratio of 2.53, a quick ratio of 1.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $16.01 and its 200-day moving average price is $17.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $783.03 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.43, a PEG ratio of 0.54 and a beta of 2.40.

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

Core Laboratories Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 4th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 12th were given a dividend of $0.01 per share. This represents a $0.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.24%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 9th. Core Laboratories’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 4.65%.

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.