DNOW (NYSE:DNOW) Stock Price Up 4.9% – Still a Buy?

DNOW Inc. (NYSE:DNOW)’s stock price rose 4.9% on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $11.67 and last traded at $11.6620. Approximately 358,056 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 89% from the average daily volume of 3,222,383 shares. The stock had previously closed at $11.12.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

DNOW has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of DNOW from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, March 8th. Zacks Research cut shares of DNOW from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Susquehanna upgraded DNOW from a “neutral” rating to a “positive” rating and set a $16.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, November 21st. KeyCorp set a $19.00 target price on DNOW in a report on Thursday, December 18th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on DNOW from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $17.00.

DNOW Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $1.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -40.05 and a beta of 0.80. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $13.94 and its two-hundred day moving average is $14.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a current ratio of 2.34.

DNOW (NYSE:DNOW) last posted its earnings results on Friday, February 20th. The oil and gas company reported $0.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15. DNOW had a negative net margin of 2.66% and a positive return on equity of 7.26%. The firm had revenue of $959.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $969.50 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.25 EPS. DNOW’s revenue was up 68.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that DNOW Inc. will post 0.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On DNOW

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in DNOW. Royal Bank of Canada raised its stake in DNOW by 28.2% during the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 35,783 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $611,000 after acquiring an additional 7,867 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its holdings in shares of DNOW by 53.4% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 358,708 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $6,127,000 after purchasing an additional 124,797 shares during the period. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of DNOW during the second quarter valued at $162,000. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of DNOW by 1.3% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,524,052 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $37,437,000 after purchasing an additional 32,317 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS raised its stake in shares of DNOW by 7.2% during the second quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 27,104 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $402,000 after purchasing an additional 1,821 shares in the last quarter. 97.63% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About DNOW

DistributionNOW (NYSE: DNOW) is a global distributor of energy and industrial products, serving a broad range of end-markets including oil and gas, petrochemical, power generation, and industrial manufacturing. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, the company provides solutions across the life cycle of energy and industrial assets, with an emphasis on safety, reliability and operational efficiency.

The company’s core product portfolio includes piping systems and related components (such as valves, fittings, flanges and gaskets), instrumentation, electrical and automation equipment, fasteners, industrial safety supplies, chemicals and composite products.