Core Laboratories Inc. (NYSE:CLB) Short Interest Update

Core Laboratories Inc. (NYSE:CLB) was the target of a significant decline in short interest in November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 6,500,000 shares, a decline of 5.1% from the November 15th total of 6,850,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 309,300 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 21.0 days. Approximately 14.0% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on CLB. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Core Laboratories from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Core Laboratories from $15.00 to $14.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have assigned a hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Core Laboratories currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $17.00.

Core Laboratories Stock Performance

CLB opened at $19.14 on Wednesday. Core Laboratories has a 52-week low of $13.82 and a 52-week high of $25.13. The company has a quick ratio of 1.79, a current ratio of 2.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The company has a market cap of $898.62 million, a P/E ratio of 29.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 2.35. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $19.67 and its 200-day moving average price is $19.70.

Core Laboratories (NYSE:CLB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The oil and gas company reported $0.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.21 by $0.04. Core Laboratories had a net margin of 5.83% and a return on equity of 15.84%. The firm had revenue of $134.40 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $134.16 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.22 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Core Laboratories will post 0.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Core Laboratories Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 25th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 4th were issued a dividend of $0.01 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 4th. This represents a $0.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.21%. Core Laboratories’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 6.15%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Core Laboratories

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN increased its holdings in Core Laboratories by 26.7% in the 3rd quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 5,653,591 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $104,761,000 after buying an additional 1,192,871 shares during the period. Earnest Partners LLC increased its holdings in Core Laboratories by 6.3% in the 2nd quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 3,286,438 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $66,682,000 after buying an additional 195,756 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Core Laboratories by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,975,016 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $36,597,000 after buying an additional 56,187 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Core Laboratories by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,053,204 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $19,521,000 after buying an additional 7,721 shares during the period. Finally, Royce & Associates LP increased its holdings in Core Laboratories by 9.0% in the 3rd quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 1,021,121 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $18,921,000 after buying an additional 84,022 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.81% of the company’s stock.

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.