Ensco's Stock Tumbles On Heavy Volume After Pricing Of Upsized Share Offering

Shares of Ensco PLC tumbled 11% on heavy volume in premarket trade Friday, after the oil services company said it priced an its upsized public share offering 13% below Thursday's closing price. Volume of 15 million shares five minutes before the open is already above the full-day average of about 11.3 million shares. The company said late Thursday that it was offering 50 million shares for sale to the public, but said Friday that offering increased to 57 million shares. The company also offered the underwriters of the offering an option to buy up to an additional 8.55 million shares. The offering was priced at $9.25, well below Thursday's closing price of $10.59. Analyst Matthew Marietta at Stephens Inc. said in a research note that he had expected to offering to price at a discount of about 5%, or around $10 a share. The number of shares offered, excluding the option for underwriters, would increase the total shares outstanding, which was about 235.3 million shares according to FactSet, by 24%.