General American Investors Co. Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in Transocean Ltd. (NYSE:RIG)

General American Investors Co. Inc. increased its stake in Transocean Ltd. (NYSE:RIG) by 8.3% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 650,000 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock after buying an additional 50,000 shares during the period. General American Investors Co. Inc. owned 0.07% of Transocean worth $3,478,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Transocean by 0.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,982,142 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock worth $433,208,000 after buying an additional 429,950 shares during the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA raised its holdings in Transocean by 11.4% in the 4th quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 50,699,389 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock worth $321,941,000 after acquiring an additional 5,168,000 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its position in Transocean by 18.8% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 46,334,990 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock valued at $290,984,000 after acquiring an additional 7,320,672 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in Transocean by 23.2% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 35,690,620 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock valued at $226,641,000 after purchasing an additional 6,719,483 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp increased its holdings in shares of Transocean by 7.0% in the 1st quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 17,013,964 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock worth $106,848,000 after purchasing an additional 1,105,747 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

RIG has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $8.00 price target on shares of Transocean in a report on Friday, August 2nd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Transocean to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Finally, DNB Markets upgraded shares of Transocean from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $7.25.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director (Cyprus) Ltd Perestroika bought 2,000,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were bought at an average price of $5.23 per share, for a total transaction of $10,460,000.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 89,574,894 shares in the company, valued at $468,476,695.62. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 13.16% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Transocean Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of RIG stock opened at $4.13 on Friday. Transocean Ltd. has a 1 year low of $4.07 and a 1 year high of $8.88. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $5.12 and a 200-day moving average price of $5.48. The company has a market cap of $3.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -7.94 and a beta of 2.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 1.36 and a quick ratio of 1.08.

Transocean (NYSE:RIG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The offshore drilling services provider reported ($0.15) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.08) by ($0.07). Transocean had a negative return on equity of 4.76% and a negative net margin of 11.34%. The company had revenue of $861.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $862.25 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($0.15) EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 18.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Transocean Ltd. will post -0.19 earnings per share for the current 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.