Noble Corporation PLC (NYSE:NE) Receives $44.71 Average Price Target from Brokerages

Noble Corporation PLC (NYSE:NE) has received a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the ten analysts that are covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $44.7143.

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. Zacks Research cut Noble from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Fearnley Fonds raised shares of Noble from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Noble in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Noble from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, August 1st. Finally, Barclays cut their price objective on Noble from $55.00 to $53.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 30th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Robert W. Eifler sold 50,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.51, for a total transaction of $2,275,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,193,828 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $54,331,112.28. The trade was a 4.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 1.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Noble

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NE. Strs Ohio purchased a new stake in shares of Noble in the 1st quarter worth $142,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Noble by 819.1% during the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,601 shares of the company’s stock valued at $69,000 after buying an additional 2,318 shares during the period. Captrust Financial Advisors purchased a new position in shares of Noble during the second quarter valued at $359,000. Natixis Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Noble in the 3rd quarter valued at about $3,935,000. Finally, Hosking Partners LLP raised its holdings in shares of Noble by 10.0% in the 4th quarter. Hosking Partners LLP now owns 1,140,328 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,203,000 after purchasing an additional 103,477 shares in the last quarter. 68.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Noble Price Performance

NE opened at $45.90 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $41.57 and a 200-day moving average price of $45.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a current ratio of 1.91 and a quick ratio of 1.91. The firm has a market cap of $7.33 billion, a PE ratio of 49.35 and a beta of 0.93. Noble has a 1 year low of $26.20 and a 1 year high of $54.98.

Noble (NYSE:NE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 27th. The company reported $0.01 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by ($0.14). The company had revenue of $719.69 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $697.98 million. Noble had a return on equity of 1.93% and a net margin of 4.88%.The business’s revenue was down 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.27 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Noble will post 0.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Noble Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 24th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 3rd. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.4%. Noble’s payout ratio is presently 215.05%.

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.