Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS Purchases New Shares in Core Laboratories Inc. (NYSE:CLB)

Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS purchased a new stake in shares of Core Laboratories Inc. (NYSE:CLB) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 35,515 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock, valued at approximately $615,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of CLB. Confluence Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Core Laboratories by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC now owns 136,359 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $2,360,000 after buying an additional 599 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of Core Laboratories by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 43,862 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $813,000 after buying an additional 716 shares during the period. Ridgewood Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of Core Laboratories by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. Ridgewood Investments LLC now owns 32,612 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $565,000 after buying an additional 1,428 shares during the period. Isthmus Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Core Laboratories by 18.8% in the 3rd quarter. Isthmus Partners LLC now owns 10,620 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $197,000 after buying an additional 1,682 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of Core Laboratories by 5.8% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 41,281 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $765,000 after buying an additional 2,267 shares during the period. 97.81% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. StockNews.com raised Core Laboratories from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Citigroup reduced their price target on 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 investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have given a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $17.00.

Core Laboratories Stock Down 5.7 %

NYSE:CLB opened at $16.87 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $18.08 and its 200-day simple moving average is $18.85. The company has a quick ratio of 1.71, a current ratio of 2.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $790.21 million, a P/E ratio of 25.57, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 2.38. Core Laboratories Inc. has a 12-month low of $13.82 and a 12-month high of $25.13.

Core Laboratories (NYSE:CLB) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The oil and gas company reported $0.23 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.23. Core Laboratories had a return on equity of 16.24% and a net margin of 5.99%. Equities research analysts expect that Core Laboratories Inc. will post 0.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Core Laboratories Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.01 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 10th. This represents a $0.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.24%. Core Laboratories’s dividend payout ratio is presently 6.06%.

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.