NOV Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:NOV)

NOV Inc. (NYSE:NOV) saw some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock traders acquired 2,616 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 1,353% compared to the typical volume of 180 put options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NOV has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Evercore set a $19.00 price objective on shares of NOV in a research note on Friday, February 6th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of NOV from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Morgan Stanley set a $16.00 price target on shares of NOV in a research report on Monday, December 15th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $21.00 price objective on shares of NOV in a research note on Thursday, January 15th. Finally, TD Cowen downgraded shares of NOV from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 10th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $18.57.

NOV Stock Down 2.2%

Shares of NYSE NOV opened at $18.26 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $6.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.04 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a current ratio of 2.42, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. NOV has a 12 month low of $10.84 and a 12 month high of $20.85. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $18.85 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $16.05.

NOV (NYSE:NOV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.25 by ($0.23). The company had revenue of $2.28 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.17 billion. NOV had a net margin of 1.66% and a return on equity of 3.57%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.41 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that NOV will post 1.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NOV Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.09 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. This is a boost from NOV’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.0%. NOV’s payout ratio is presently 94.74%.

Insider Activity at NOV

In other NOV news, VP Craig L. Weinstock sold 70,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.08, for a total transaction of $1,405,600.00. Following the transaction, the vice president owned 256,319 shares in the company, valued at $5,146,885.52. This trade represents a 21.45% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Joseph W. Rovig sold 151,086 shares of NOV stock in a transaction on Monday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.17, for a total value of $3,047,404.62. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 269,694 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,439,727.98. This represents a 35.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 2.08% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NOV

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in NOV by 1,743.9% during the 4th 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 acquiring an additional 4,785,015 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in NOV by 585.8% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 5,291,529 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $65,774,000 after purchasing an additional 4,519,957 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its stake in shares of NOV by 401.9% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,165,518 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $39,347,000 after purchasing an additional 2,534,815 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of NOV by 27.2% during the second quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 6,091,095 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $75,712,000 after purchasing an additional 1,302,214 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of NOV by 76.4% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,721,997 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $42,545,000 after purchasing an additional 1,178,838 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.27% of the company’s stock.

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.