Noble Corporation PLC (NYSE:NE) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Noble Corporation PLC (NYSE:NE) has received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the eleven ratings firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $45.3750.

NE has been the subject of several recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Noble from $33.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Zacks Research raised Noble from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 19th. Barclays raised Noble from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $50.00 to $56.00 in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Susquehanna upped their price target on Noble from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 7th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut Noble from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Jennie Howard sold 2,486 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.08, for a total value of $126,984.88. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 15,676 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $800,730.08. This represents a 13.69% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Charles M. Sledge sold 724 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.61, for a total value of $37,365.64. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 1,360 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $70,189.60. This trade represents a 34.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 343,550 shares of company stock worth $16,366,436 over the last quarter. Insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Noble

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Noble by 20.4% in the 1st quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,080 shares of the company’s stock valued at $151,000 after acquiring an additional 521 shares during the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Noble by 43.7% in the 1st quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 2,693 shares of the company’s stock valued at $132,000 after acquiring an additional 819 shares during the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC bought a new stake in shares of Noble in the 1st quarter valued at about $218,000. State of Tennessee Department of Treasury acquired a new position in shares of Noble in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,109,000. Finally, Sagefield Capital LP grew its position in shares of Noble by 40.0% in the 4th quarter. Sagefield Capital LP now owns 182,844 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,164,000 after purchasing an additional 52,261 shares during the period. 68.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Noble Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:NE opened at $46.36 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.42 and a beta of 0.94. Noble has a 1-year low of $24.60 and a 1-year high of $54.98. The company has a current ratio of 1.99, a quick ratio of 1.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $49.80 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $40.48.

Noble (NYSE:NE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 27th. The company reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.21 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $785.69 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $730.47 million. Noble had a return on equity of 2.32% and a net margin of 7.17%.The company’s quarterly revenue was down 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.26 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Noble will post 0.93 earnings per share for the current year.

Noble Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 25th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 4th will be paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 4th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.3%. Noble’s dividend payout ratio is 139.86%.

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.