Noble Corporation PLC (NE) To Go Ex-Dividend on March 4th

Noble Corporation PLC (NYSE:NE) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 11th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 4th will be paid a dividend of 0.50 per share on Thursday, March 19th. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.4%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 4th.

Noble has a payout ratio of 71.7% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Noble to earn $4.31 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 46.4%.

Noble Stock Down 0.6%

NE stock traded down $0.29 on Monday, reaching $45.14. 369,121 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,296,478. The company has a market cap of $7.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.53 and a beta of 1.07. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $35.83 and a 200-day simple moving average of $31.65. Noble has a one year low of $17.40 and a one year high of $47.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 1.67 and a quick ratio of 1.67.

Noble (NYSE:NE) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The company reported $0.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.15 by ($0.06). The company had revenue of $764.41 million during the quarter. Noble had a return on equity of 2.34% and a net margin of 6.60%.The company’s revenue was down 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.56 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Noble will post 2.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. Susquehanna lifted their price objective on shares of Noble from $32.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Noble from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 9th. Fearnley Fonds downgraded shares of Noble from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. SEB Equity Research set a $33.00 price objective on shares of Noble in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. Finally, Barclays lowered Noble from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $36.00 to $41.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $38.63.

Noble Company Profile

Noble (NYSE: NE) is an offshore drilling company that provides drilling services to the global oil and gas industry. The firm operates a fleet of mobile offshore drilling units and delivers contract drilling solutions for exploration and production activities. Its core business centers on executing drilling programs for upstream energy companies across a range of water depths and operating environments.

Products and services include the operation and management of offshore drilling rigs — such as drillships, semisubmersibles and jackups — along with associated technical, engineering and project management services.