Ensco Plc (NYSE:ESV) Bonds Trading 1% Lower

An issue of Ensco Plc (NYSE:ESV) debt fell 1% against its face value during trading on Thursday. The high-yield issue of debt has a 5.75% coupon and will mature on October 1, 2044. The bonds in the issue are now trading at $67.00 and were trading at $66.50 last week. Price changes in a company’s debt in credit markets sometimes predict parallel changes in its stock price.

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on ESV. Seaport Global Securities cut shares of Ensco Plc from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $6.50 to $4.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 21st. Jefferies Group LLC set a $9.00 price objective on shares of Ensco Plc and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, July 1st. BidaskClub cut shares of Ensco Plc from a “sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 22nd. BMO Capital Markets restated a “hold” rating and issued a $4.75 price objective on shares of Ensco Plc in a research note on Tuesday, July 11th. Finally, ValuEngine upgraded shares of Ensco Plc from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 25th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. The stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $9.64.

Shares of Ensco Plc (NYSE:ESV) traded down 5.31% during trading on Wednesday, hitting $4.28. 14,253,639 shares of the stock traded hands. Ensco Plc has a 52 week low of $4.16 and a 52 week high of $12.04. The company has a 50-day moving average of $5.16 and a 200-day moving average of $7.51. The firm has a market cap of $1.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.75 and a beta of 1.64.

Ensco Plc (NYSE:ESV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The offshore drilling services provider reported ($0.10) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.12) by $0.02. Ensco Plc had a return on equity of 0.77% and a net margin of 2.68%. The firm had revenue of $457.50 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $453.48 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.04 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 49.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Ensco Plc will post ($0.37) EPS for the current fiscal year.

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ESV. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. raised its position in shares of Ensco Plc by 1.6% in the first quarter. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 11,635 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock valued at $104,000 after buying an additional 180 shares during the period. GWM Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ensco Plc during the second quarter valued at approximately $107,000. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Ensco Plc during the second quarter valued at approximately $116,000. Creative Planning raised its position in shares of Ensco Plc by 4.8% in the first quarter. Creative Planning now owns 13,135 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock valued at $118,000 after buying an additional 601 shares during the period. Finally, First Manhattan Co. raised its position in shares of Ensco Plc by 72.6% in the first quarter. First Manhattan Co. now owns 14,260 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock valued at $121,000 after buying an additional 6,000 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.94% of the company’s stock.

About Ensco Plc

Ensco plc is an offshore contract drilling company. The Company provides offshore contract drilling services to the international oil and gas industry. Its segments include Floaters, Jackups and Other. The Floaters segment includes its drillships and semisubmersible rigs, and provides contract drilling.