Royce & Associates LP Buys 84,022 Shares of Core Laboratories Inc. (NYSE:CLB)

Royce & Associates LP grew its stake in Core Laboratories Inc. (NYSE:CLB) by 9.0% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,021,121 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after purchasing an additional 84,022 shares during the period. Royce & Associates LP’s holdings in Core Laboratories were worth $18,921,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in Core Laboratories in the 2nd quarter worth $36,000. nVerses Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Core Laboratories in the 3rd quarter worth about $48,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of Core Laboratories by 23.9% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,425 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $90,000 after acquiring an additional 855 shares in the last quarter. Platinum Investment Management Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Core Laboratories by 13.9% in the 1st quarter. Platinum Investment Management Ltd. now owns 6,351 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $108,000 after acquiring an additional 774 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its stake in shares of Core Laboratories by 11.9% in the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 5,636 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $114,000 after acquiring an additional 600 shares in the last quarter. 97.81% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Core Laboratories Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CLB opened at $19.53 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $18.91 and its 200-day moving average price is $19.26. 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 $916.93 million, a PE ratio of 30.05, a PEG ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 2.35. Core Laboratories Inc. has a 52-week low of $13.82 and a 52-week high of $25.13.

Core Laboratories (NYSE:CLB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The oil and gas company reported $0.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.21 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $134.40 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $134.16 million. Core Laboratories had a net margin of 5.83% and a return on equity of 15.84%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.22 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Core Laboratories Inc. will post 0.77 EPS for the current year.

Core Laboratories Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 25th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 4th will be paid a $0.01 dividend. This represents a $0.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.20%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 4th. Core Laboratories’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 6.15%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Core Laboratories from $18.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th. StockNews.com raised shares of Core Laboratories from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Core Laboratories from $15.00 to $14.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have assigned a hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Core Laboratories has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $17.00.

Core Laboratories 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.