Tidewater (NYSE:TDW) Board Authorizes Share Repurchase Program

Tidewater (NYSE:TDW) declared that its board has approved a share buyback program on Thursday, May 2nd, RTT News reports. The company plans to repurchase $18.10 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the oil and gas company to purchase up to 0.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Tidewater Stock Up 13.4 %

TDW stock opened at $106.51 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $88.77 and its 200 day simple moving average is $73.92. The company has a market cap of $5.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 58.20 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 1.70 and a current ratio of 1.80. Tidewater has a fifty-two week low of $39.53 and a fifty-two week high of $107.45.

Tidewater (NYSE:TDW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The oil and gas company reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.40. Tidewater had a return on equity of 13.37% and a net margin of 9.62%. The firm had revenue of $321.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $312.05 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.23 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 66.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Tidewater will post 4.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Johnson Rice started coverage on shares of Tidewater in a research note on Friday, February 9th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $88.00 price objective on the stock. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on Tidewater from $87.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Pickering Energy Partners began coverage on Tidewater in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. They set an “outperform” rating for the company. StockNews.com raised Tidewater from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Finally, BTIG Research raised their price objective on shares of Tidewater from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $93.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Tidewater

In other Tidewater news, EVP Daniel A. Hudson sold 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.00, for a total value of $656,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 104,312 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,553,584. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other Tidewater news, EVP Daniel A. Hudson sold 8,000 shares of Tidewater stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.00, for a total transaction of $656,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 104,312 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,553,584. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO David E. Darling sold 17,821 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.08, for a total transaction of $1,462,747.68. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 85,959 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,055,514.72. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 45,462 shares of company stock worth $3,716,739. 9.59% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Tidewater

Tidewater Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides offshore support vessels and marine support services to the offshore energy industry through the operation of a fleet of marine service vessels worldwide. It provides services in support of offshore oil and gas exploration, field development, and production, as well as windfarm development and maintenance, including towing of and anchor handling for mobile offshore drilling units; transporting supplies and personnel necessary to sustain drilling, workover, and production activities; offshore construction, and seismic and subsea support; geotechnical survey support for windfarm construction; and various specialized services, such as pipe and cable laying.