NOV Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:NOV)

NOV Inc. (NYSE:NOV) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Traders acquired 2,616 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of 1,353% compared to the typical volume of 180 put options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NOV

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in NOV by 95.2% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 879,960 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $17,846,000 after buying an additional 429,104 shares in the last quarter. Wintrust Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of NOV by 631.6% in the 1st quarter. Wintrust Investments LLC now owns 81,943 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $1,600,000 after purchasing an additional 70,743 shares in the last quarter. Stanley Laman Group Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of NOV in the 2nd quarter valued at $4,031,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its position in shares of NOV by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 3,883,885 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $75,813,000 after purchasing an additional 42,717 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. increased its position in shares of NOV by 1,194.1% during the 2nd quarter. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. now owns 1,706,017 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $32,431,000 after purchasing an additional 1,574,188 shares in the last quarter. 93.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on NOV. Susquehanna lowered their price target on NOV from $26.00 to $22.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 11th. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of NOV from $20.00 to $17.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Evercore ISI raised shares of NOV to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on NOV from $25.00 to $23.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on NOV from $26.00 to $25.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $22.57.

NOV Stock Performance

NOV opened at $15.69 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $6.20 billion, a PE ratio of 6.30, a P/E/G ratio of 0.47 and a beta of 1.67. NOV has a 1 year low of $15.47 and a 1 year high of $21.53. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $16.83 and its 200-day simple moving average is $18.07. The company has a current ratio of 2.61, a quick ratio of 1.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27.

NOV (NYSE:NOV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.35 by $0.22. NOV had a net margin of 11.88% and a return on equity of 10.97%. The firm had revenue of $2.22 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.19 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.39 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that NOV will post 1.64 EPS for the current year.

NOV Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th were paid a dividend of $0.075 per share. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.91%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 13th. NOV’s dividend payout ratio is 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.