NOV Inc. (NYSE:NOV) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Analysts

Shares of NOV Inc. (NYSE:NOV) have received a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the seventeen analysts that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, ten have given a hold recommendation, four have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $20.4286.

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on NOV shares. TD Cowen upgraded shares of NOV from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on NOV from $18.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 15th. Capital One Financial upgraded NOV from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $26.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, June 4th. Susquehanna increased their target price on NOV from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Evercore upgraded shares of NOV to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th.

NOV Stock Down 3.4%

Shares of NYSE:NOV opened at $19.27 on Thursday. NOV has a 52 week low of $11.77 and a 52 week high of $21.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 1.66 and a current ratio of 2.47. The company’s fifty day moving average is $20.23 and its 200-day moving average is $18.77. The company has a market capitalization of $6.92 billion, a PE ratio of 80.31 and a beta of 0.89.

NOV (NYSE:NOV) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.05 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.17 by ($0.12). NOV had a net margin of 1.05% and a return on equity of 3.34%. The firm had revenue of $2.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.05 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.19 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that NOV will post 0.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NOV Dividend Announcement

The business 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. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 12th. This represents a yield of 170.0%. NOV’s dividend payout ratio is 150.00%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its position in NOV by 2,302.8% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 325,892 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $6,130,000 after buying an additional 312,329 shares in the last quarter. Glenmede Trust Co. NA lifted its position in NOV by 19.7% during the 1st quarter. Glenmede Trust Co. NA now owns 12,704 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $239,000 after buying an additional 2,094 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its position in NOV by 17.0% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 4,575,450 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $86,064,000 after buying an additional 664,969 shares in the last quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd lifted its position in NOV by 36.8% during the 1st quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd now owns 2,030 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $38,000 after buying an additional 546 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi lifted its position in NOV by 233.2% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 51,575 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $970,000 after buying an additional 36,096 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.27% of the company’s stock.

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.