American Century Companies Inc. Raises Stake in Valaris Limited $VAL

American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in shares of Valaris Limited (NYSE:VAL) by 244.2% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 115,211 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 81,737 shares during the quarter. American Century Companies Inc. owned approximately 0.16% of Valaris worth $4,523,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Tejara Capital Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Valaris by 2.5% in the first quarter. Tejara Capital Ltd now owns 115,220 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,524,000 after acquiring an additional 2,815 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Valaris by 20.0% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,761,369 shares of the company’s stock valued at $108,412,000 after acquiring an additional 460,792 shares in the last quarter. Moerus Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Valaris in the first quarter valued at about $18,314,000. HighTower Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Valaris by 35.8% in the first quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 15,946 shares of the company’s stock valued at $626,000 after acquiring an additional 4,204 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Valaris in the first quarter valued at about $6,375,000. 96.74% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VAL has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Evercore ISI reduced their target price on shares of Valaris from $55.00 to $50.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Susquehanna boosted their target price on shares of Valaris from $46.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. BTIG Research reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Valaris in a report on Monday, July 14th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Valaris from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Valaris from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $46.20.

Valaris Price Performance

Shares of VAL stock opened at $49.72 on Friday. Valaris Limited has a fifty-two week low of $27.15 and a fifty-two week high of $61.60. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.95 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 1.81 and a current ratio of 1.81. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $47.01 and its 200-day simple moving average is $41.00.

Valaris (NYSE:VAL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The company reported $1.61 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.16 by $0.45. Valaris had a return on equity of 12.36% and a net margin of 11.18%.The business had revenue of $615.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $582.70 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.03 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Valaris Limited will post 3.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Valaris Profile

Valaris Limited, together with its subsidiaries, provides offshore contract drilling services Gulf of Mexico, South America, North Sea, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. The company operates through four segments: Floaters, Jackups, ARO, and Other. It owns an offshore drilling rig fleet, which include drillships, dynamically positioned semisubmersible rigs, moored semisubmersible rig, and jackup rigs.