Core Laboratories Inc. (NYSE:CLB) Short Interest Down 5.9% in August

Core Laboratories Inc. (NYSE:CLB) saw a large decrease in short interest in the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 7,460,000 shares, a decrease of 5.9% from the August 15th total of 7,930,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 462,100 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 16.1 days. Approximately 16.1% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on CLB. Bank of America cut their target price on Core Laboratories from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 15th. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on Core Laboratories from $18.00 to $17.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 15th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Core Laboratories from $18.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Core Laboratories from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and two have issued a hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $18.00.

Core Laboratories Trading Down 0.3 %

CLB opened at $18.30 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.68, a current ratio of 2.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $20.31 and its two-hundred day moving average is $18.56. The company has a market capitalization of $858.27 million, a P/E ratio of 20.80, a PEG ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 2.37. Core Laboratories has a 52 week low of $13.82 and a 52 week high of $25.20.

Core Laboratories (NYSE:CLB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The oil and gas company reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.21 by $0.01. Core Laboratories had a return on equity of 15.20% and a net margin of 5.44%. The firm had revenue of $130.58 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $132.85 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.23 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Core Laboratories will post 0.8 earnings per share for the current year.

Core Laboratories Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 5th were given a $0.01 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 5th. This represents a $0.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.22%. Core Laboratories’s payout ratio is presently 4.55%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Core Laboratories

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of CLB. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lifted its holdings in Core Laboratories by 11.9% during the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 5,636 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $114,000 after buying an additional 600 shares during the period. Creative Planning grew its stake in Core Laboratories by 38.3% during the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 54,891 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $1,114,000 after buying an additional 15,196 shares during the last quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN increased its position in Core Laboratories by 446.8% during the 2nd quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 4,460,720 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $90,508,000 after buying an additional 3,644,963 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its stake in Core Laboratories by 3.3% in the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 18,054 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $366,000 after buying an additional 579 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Earnest Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Core Laboratories by 6.3% during the second quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 3,286,438 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $66,682,000 after acquiring an additional 195,756 shares during the last quarter. 97.81% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.