NOV (NYSE:NOV) Reaches New 52-Week High – Here’s What Happened

NOV Inc. (NYSE:NOV) hit a new 52-week high on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $21.93 and last traded at $21.6590, with a volume of 63835 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $21.39.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on NOV shares. Barclays cut their price objective on NOV from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley set a $21.00 price target on NOV in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Citigroup raised their price target on NOV from $20.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of NOV in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered shares of NOV from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 26th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $21.31.

NOV Price Performance

The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $20.02 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $19.83. The stock has a market cap of $7.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 82.22 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 2.42 and a quick ratio of 1.61.

NOV (NYSE:NOV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.17 by $0.14. NOV had a net margin of 1.10% and a return on equity of 3.44%. The company had revenue of $2.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.08 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.29 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that NOV Inc. will post 0.99 earnings per share for the current year.

NOV Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 11th will be issued a $0.09 dividend. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 11th. NOV’s dividend payout ratio is presently 138.46%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other NOV news, Director David Harrison sold 9,594 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.21, for a total value of $184,300.74. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 126,763 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,435,117.23. This trade represents a 7.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 1.15% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of NOV

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in NOV. Wealthfront Advisers LLC bought a new stake in shares of NOV during the 2nd quarter worth $1,281,000. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its position in NOV by 20.4% in the first quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 422,834 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $7,954,000 after acquiring an additional 71,754 shares during the period. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. boosted its stake in NOV by 203.9% in the fourth quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 85,897 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $1,343,000 after acquiring an additional 57,634 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of NOV during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $697,976,000. Finally, Energy Income Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of NOV during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $4,344,000. 93.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About NOV

National Oilwell Varco (NYSE: NOV) is a leading provider of equipment and technology to the oil and gas industry. The company designs, manufactures and services an extensive portfolio of products used in drilling, completion and production operations. Its offerings include drilling rigs and related components, wellbore technologies such as tubulars and completion tools, surface equipment including mud pumps and blowout preventers, and aftermarket parts and services that support ongoing field operations.

NOV’s business is organized to serve upstream energy companies around the world.