RPC (NYSE:RES) Stock Price Up 4.8% – Time to Buy?

RPC, Inc. (NYSE:RES)’s share price was up 4.8% during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $6.14 and last traded at $6.12. Approximately 217,652 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 87% from the average daily volume of 1,673,083 shares. The stock had previously closed at $5.84.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on RES shares. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on RPC from $8.00 to $7.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 11th. Susquehanna cut their price objective on shares of RPC from $6.50 to $6.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 25th.

RPC Price Performance

The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $6.30 and a 200-day moving average price of $6.32. The company has a market capitalization of $1.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.23 and a beta of 1.61.

RPC (NYSE:RES) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The oil and gas company reported $0.09 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.13 by ($0.04). RPC had a return on equity of 11.36% and a net margin of 8.07%. The company had revenue of $337.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $365.33 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.08 earnings per share. RPC’s quarterly revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that RPC, Inc. will post 0.43 EPS for the current year.

RPC Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.04 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 8th. This represents a $0.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.61%. RPC’s payout ratio is currently 28.57%.

Institutional Trading of RPC

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in RES. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of RPC by 38.9% during the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 12,029,993 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $76,511,000 after acquiring an additional 3,371,490 shares during the period. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in RPC during the third quarter valued at about $5,917,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in RPC by 7.9% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 10,456,497 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $65,353,000 after purchasing an additional 769,578 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in RPC by 48.7% during the second quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,004,789 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $12,530,000 after purchasing an additional 656,446 shares during the period. Finally, Edgestream Partners L.P. purchased a new position in shares of RPC in the second quarter worth about $3,814,000. 41.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About RPC

RPC, Inc, through its subsidiaries, engages provision of a range of oilfield services and equipment for the oil and gas companies involved in the exploration, production, and development of oil and gas properties. The company operates through Technical Services and Support Services segments. The Technical Services segment offers pressure pumping, fracturing, acidizing, cementing, downhole tools, coiled tubing, snubbing, nitrogen, well control, wireline, pump down, and fishing services that are used in the completion, production, and maintenance of oil and gas wells.