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

Core Laboratories Inc. (NYSE:CLB) was the target of a large decrease in short interest in September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 6,860,000 shares, a decrease of 8.0% from the August 31st total of 7,460,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 451,300 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 15.2 days. Approximately 14.8% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in Core Laboratories by 9.0% in the 1st quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 639,071 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $10,915,000 after purchasing an additional 52,639 shares in the last quarter. Gendell Jeffrey L lifted its stake in Core Laboratories by 35.1% in the 4th quarter. Gendell Jeffrey L now owns 162,093 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $2,863,000 after purchasing an additional 42,140 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Core Laboratories by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,392,034 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $92,096,000 after purchasing an additional 27,701 shares in the last quarter. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE lifted its stake in Core Laboratories by 40.8% in the 1st quarter. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE now owns 183,282 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $3,130,000 after purchasing an additional 53,090 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Congress Asset Management Co. MA increased its holdings in shares of Core Laboratories by 17.6% during the 1st quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. MA now owns 1,606,745 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $27,443,000 after buying an additional 240,989 shares during the last quarter. 97.81% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Core Laboratories Price Performance

Core Laboratories stock traded up $0.68 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $19.21. The company had a trading volume of 302,251 shares, compared to its average volume of 442,845. The company has a market capitalization of $900.95 million, a P/E ratio of 21.81, a P/E/G ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 2.37. Core Laboratories has a 12-month low of $13.82 and a 12-month high of $25.13. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $19.57 and its 200-day simple moving average is $18.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 2.39 and a quick ratio of 1.68.

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

Core Laboratories Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 5th were paid a $0.01 dividend. This represents a $0.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 5th. Core Laboratories’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 4.55%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently issued reports on CLB. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Core Laboratories from $18.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of Core Laboratories from $18.00 to $17.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 15th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Core Laboratories from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, Bank of America decreased their price target on shares of Core Laboratories from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 15th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and two have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $18.00.

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.