Villere ST Denis J & Co. LLC Purchases 126,441 Shares of Tidewater Inc. (NYSE:TDW)

Villere ST Denis J & Co. LLC raised its position in Tidewater Inc. (NYSE:TDW - Free Report) by 35.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 486,808 shares of the oil and gas company's stock after acquiring an additional 126,441 shares during the period. Tidewater makes up about 2.4% of Villere ST Denis J & Co. LLC's holdings, making the stock its 20th largest position. Villere ST Denis J & Co. LLC owned 0.93% of Tidewater worth $26,633,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its stake in Tidewater by 17.5% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 836,253 shares of the oil and gas company's stock valued at $45,752,000 after acquiring an additional 124,610 shares during the period. Bleakley Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in Tidewater in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $368,000. Tectonic Advisors LLC grew its stake in Tidewater by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Tectonic Advisors LLC now owns 17,574 shares of the oil and gas company's stock valued at $961,000 after acquiring an additional 402 shares during the period. Hodges Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in Tidewater by 103.0% in the fourth quarter. Hodges Capital Management Inc. now owns 96,650 shares of the oil and gas company's stock valued at $5,288,000 after acquiring an additional 49,050 shares during the period. Finally, Spire Wealth Management grew its stake in Tidewater by 79.7% in the fourth quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 3,485 shares of the oil and gas company's stock valued at $191,000 after acquiring an additional 1,546 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.13% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have commented on TDW shares. DNB Markets assumed coverage on Tidewater in a research note on Friday, November 29th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $70.00 price objective for the company. Pickering Energy Partners cut Tidewater from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Raymond James cut Tidewater from a "strong-buy" rating to an "outperform" rating and cut their target price for the company from $131.00 to $102.00 in a research report on Monday, November 11th. StockNews.com raised Tidewater from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Evercore ISI cut Tidewater from an "outperform" rating to an "in-line" rating and cut their target price for the company from $112.00 to $68.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Tidewater has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $92.50.

Tidewater Stock Performance

Tidewater stock traded down $2.42 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $52.84. 746,314 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 933,691. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $53.70 and its 200 day simple moving average is $63.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.76 billion, a PE ratio of 15.54 and a beta of 1.04. Tidewater Inc. has a one year low of $46.50 and a one year high of $111.42. The company has a quick ratio of 2.19, a current ratio of 2.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Quintin Kneen bought 41,615 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, December 13th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $48.06 per share, for a total transaction of $2,000,016.90. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 176,239 shares in the company, valued at $8,470,046.34. This represents a 30.91 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 8.33% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Tidewater Profile

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.