StockNews.com Begins Coverage on RPC (NYSE:RES)

StockNews.com began coverage on shares of RPC (NYSE:RES – Get Rating) in a research note released on Thursday. The firm issued a buy rating on the oil and gas company’s stock.

Separately, Susquehanna reiterated a neutral rating and issued a $50.00 price objective on shares of RPC in a report on Tuesday, March 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $24.33.

RPC Stock Down 2.2 %

Shares of RPC stock opened at $7.64 on Thursday. RPC has a twelve month low of $5.70 and a twelve month high of $12.91. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $9.12 and a 200 day moving average price of $8.79. The firm has a market cap of $1.66 billion, a PE ratio of 7.56 and a beta of 1.81.

RPC (NYSE:RES – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 25th. The oil and gas company reported $0.41 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.29 by $0.12. RPC had a return on equity of 29.45% and a net margin of 13.63%. The firm had revenue of $482.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $462.37 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.06 EPS. RPC’s revenue for the quarter was up 79.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that RPC will post 1.71 EPS for the current year.

RPC Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 10th were given a dividend of $0.04 per share. This represents a $0.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.09%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 9th. This is a positive change from RPC’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.02. RPC’s payout ratio is presently 15.84%.

Institutional Trading of RPC

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in RES. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of RPC during the first quarter worth $193,000. Raymond James & Associates acquired a new position in RPC in the first quarter valued at $127,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in RPC by 14.6% in the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 746,489 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $7,965,000 after acquiring an additional 95,260 shares in the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. boosted its stake in RPC by 12.6% in the first quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 60,635 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $647,000 after acquiring an additional 6,767 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Natixis Advisors L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of RPC during the first quarter worth about $288,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.15% of the company’s stock.

About RPC

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RPC, Inc engages in the exploration, production and development of oil and gas properties. It operates through the following segments: Technical Services and Support Services. The Technical Services segment provides oil and gas, fracturing, acidizing, coiled tubing, snubbing, nitrogen, well control, wireline and fishing services.