Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Buys Shares of 178,266 NOV Inc. $NOV

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. purchased a new position in shares of NOV Inc. (NYSE:NOV) during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 178,266 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,353,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NOV. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its position in NOV by 749.2% in the 1st quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 360,729 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $6,785,000 after purchasing an additional 318,248 shares during the last quarter. Evolve Private Wealth LLC raised its stake in NOV by 5.3% during the 1st quarter. Evolve Private Wealth LLC now owns 62,396 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $1,174,000 after acquiring an additional 3,147 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in NOV by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,088,655 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $32,646,000 after acquiring an additional 60,148 shares during the period. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV grew its stake in shares of NOV by 64.0% in the fourth quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 47,164 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $737,000 after purchasing an additional 18,404 shares in the last quarter. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd acquired a new position in shares of NOV during the fourth quarter valued at $3,173,000. 93.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of NOV from $18.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 15th. Barclays restated an “underweight” rating and issued a $21.00 price objective (up from $20.00) on shares of NOV in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on NOV from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 20th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of NOV in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group set a $19.00 target price on shares of NOV in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. One equities research 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $20.57.

NOV Price Performance

NYSE NOV opened at $18.57 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 2.47, a quick ratio of 1.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. NOV Inc. has a 1 year low of $11.77 and a 1 year high of $21.55. The company has a market cap of $6.67 billion, a PE ratio of 77.39 and a beta of 0.89. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $20.11 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $18.94.

NOV (NYSE:NOV) last released its 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). NOV had a return on equity of 3.34% and a net margin of 1.05%.The firm had revenue of $2.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.05 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.19 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that NOV Inc. will post 0.9 EPS for the current year.

NOV Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a special dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 12th were issued a $0.09 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 12th. This represents a dividend yield of 170.0%. NOV’s dividend payout ratio is presently 150.00%.

NOV Company 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.