Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Invests $1.97 Million in NOV Inc. $NOV

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new stake in shares of NOV Inc. (NYSE:NOV) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 104,500 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,966,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of NOV. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in NOV by 1,743.9% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,059,400 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $79,080,000 after buying an additional 4,785,015 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its holdings in NOV by 401.9% during the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,165,518 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $39,347,000 after acquiring an additional 2,534,815 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in shares of NOV by 43.6% in the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 7,596,504 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $100,654,000 after acquiring an additional 2,304,975 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of NOV by 76.4% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,721,997 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $42,545,000 after purchasing an additional 1,178,838 shares during the period. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP bought a new stake in shares of NOV during the 3rd quarter valued at about $14,114,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.27% of the company’s stock.

NOV Stock Performance

Shares of NOV opened at $18.57 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 77.39 and a beta of 0.89. NOV Inc. has a 52 week low of $11.77 and a 52 week high of $21.55. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $20.11 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $18.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 1.66 and a current ratio of 2.47.

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

NOV Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a special dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 26th. Investors of record on Friday, June 12th were given a dividend of $0.09 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 170.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 12th. NOV’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 150.00%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on NOV shares. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of NOV from $18.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 15th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their target price on shares of NOV from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Evercore upgraded shares of NOV to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Barclays reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and issued a $21.00 price target (up from $20.00) on shares of NOV in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Susquehanna upped their price objective on shares of NOV from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $20.57.

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.