NOV Inc. $NOV Shares Sold by Legal & General Group Plc

Legal & General Group Plc decreased its position in NOV Inc. (NYSE:NOV) by 5.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 589,513 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock after selling 34,022 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned about 0.16% of NOV worth $9,214,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of NOV by 0.9% in the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 18,578,053 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $246,159,000 after buying an additional 161,414 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of NOV by 43.6% in the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 7,596,504 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $100,654,000 after buying an additional 2,304,975 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of NOV by 15.1% in the third quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 7,008,337 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $92,860,000 after buying an additional 917,242 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in shares of NOV by 14.8% in the third quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 5,346,302 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $70,839,000 after buying an additional 689,427 shares during the period. Finally, Oldfield Partners LLP lifted its holdings in shares of NOV by 5.8% in the fourth quarter. Oldfield Partners LLP now owns 5,045,332 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $78,859,000 after buying an additional 276,961 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.27% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NOV has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of NOV in a report on Friday, March 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $19.00 target price on NOV in a report on Wednesday. TD Cowen raised NOV from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Barclays reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $21.00 target price (up from $20.00) on shares of NOV in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Argus raised NOV to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, NOV presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $20.43.

NOV Trading Up 3.4%

Shares of NYSE NOV opened at $21.53 on Friday. NOV Inc. has a 12 month low of $11.77 and a 12 month high of $21.55. The company has a market cap of $7.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 89.73 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a quick ratio of 1.66, a current ratio of 2.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $19.96 and a 200-day simple moving average of $18.42.

NOV (NYSE:NOV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.05 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.17 by ($0.12). The business had revenue of $2.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.05 billion. NOV had a net margin of 1.05% and a return on equity of 3.34%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.19 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that NOV Inc. will post 0.91 EPS for the current year.

NOV Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a special dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 26th. Investors of record on Friday, June 12th will be given a dividend of $0.09 per share. This represents a yield of 180.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 12th. NOV’s payout ratio is presently 150.00%.

NOV Profile

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.