Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Buys 429,104 Shares of NOV Inc. (NYSE:NOV)

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of NOV Inc. (NYSE:NOV) by 95.2% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 879,960 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock after acquiring an additional 429,104 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s holdings in NOV were worth $17,846,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of NOV. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. lifted its stake in NOV by 769.1% in the 4th quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 6,166,061 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $125,048,000 after purchasing an additional 5,456,581 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in NOV by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 5,687,556 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $115,343,000 after buying an additional 231,464 shares during the period. Earnest Partners LLC grew its position in NOV by 4.5% during the third quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 4,143,782 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $86,605,000 after buying an additional 178,375 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in NOV by 4.9% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,776,524 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $56,308,000 after acquiring an additional 130,478 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Heartland Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of NOV by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. Heartland Advisors Inc. now owns 2,406,296 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $48,800,000 after acquiring an additional 109,370 shares in the last quarter. 93.27% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently commented on NOV shares. Susquehanna reissued a “positive” rating and set a $26.00 price objective on shares of NOV in a report on Monday, April 8th. TD Cowen cut their price target on shares of NOV from $27.00 to $26.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 29th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $24.07.

NOV Stock Performance

NOV stock opened at $18.87 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $18.44 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $18.82. The company has a quick ratio of 1.50, a current ratio of 2.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. NOV Inc. has a twelve month low of $15.47 and a twelve month high of $21.91. The company has a market capitalization of $7.46 billion, a PE ratio of 7.58, a P/E/G ratio of 0.59 and a beta of 1.70.

NOV (NYSE:NOV) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by $0.03. NOV had a return on equity of 10.21% and a net margin of 11.23%. The company had revenue of $2.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.11 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.32 EPS. NOV’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that NOV Inc. will post 1.56 EPS for the current year.

NOV Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be issued a $0.075 dividend. This is a boost from NOV’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.05. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.59%. NOV’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 12.05%.

NOV Company Profile

NOV Inc designs, constructs, manufactures, and sells systems, components, and products for oil and gas drilling and production, and industrial and renewable energy sectors in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments, Energy Equipment, and Energy Products and Services. The company provides solids control and waste management equipment and services, managed pressure drilling, drilling fluids, premium drillpipe, wired pipe, drilling optimization services, tubular inspection and coating services, instrumentation, downhole tools, and drill bits.