NOV Inc. (NYSE:NOV) Short Interest Down 14.6% in March

NOV Inc. (NYSE:NOV) was the target of a large decline in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 21,190,000 shares, a decline of 14.6% from the March 15th total of 24,800,000 shares. Approximately 5.6% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 4,770,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.4 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NOV

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of NOV. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of NOV by 12,344.0% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 12,309,433 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $179,718,000 after buying an additional 12,210,514 shares in the last quarter. First Pacific Advisors LP bought a new position in NOV during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $39,495,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of NOV by 13.0% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 16,793,128 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $245,178,000 after buying an additional 1,934,243 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in NOV by 85.9% in the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 3,784,096 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $55,248,000 after buying an additional 1,748,816 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its stake in NOV by 40.7% during the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 5,718,408 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $83,489,000 after purchasing an additional 1,652,917 shares during the period. 93.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

NOV Stock Performance

Shares of NOV stock opened at $12.52 on Monday. NOV has a 52 week low of $10.84 and a 52 week high of $21.20. The company has a market cap of $4.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.77, a PEG ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.64, a current ratio of 2.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. The business has a 50 day moving average of $14.17 and a two-hundred day moving average of $14.97.

NOV (NYSE:NOV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.41 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.35 by $0.06. NOV had a net margin of 7.16% and a return on equity of 9.88%. As a group, analysts anticipate that NOV will post 1.4 EPS for the current year.

NOV Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a $0.075 dividend. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. NOV’s dividend payout ratio is currently 18.63%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of NOV from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Royal Bank of Canada raised shares of NOV from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on NOV from $16.00 to $13.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of NOV from $25.00 to $23.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Finally, Susquehanna dropped their price objective on shares of NOV from $21.00 to $19.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, NOV has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $19.00.

NOV Company Profile

NOV Inc designs, constructs, manufactures, and sells systems, components, and products for oil and gas drilling and production, and industrial and renewable energy sectors in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments, Energy Equipment, and Energy Products and Services. The company provides solids control and waste management equipment and services, managed pressure drilling, drilling fluids, premium drillpipe, wired pipe, drilling optimization services, tubular inspection and coating services, instrumentation, downhole tools, and drill bits.