California Public Employees Retirement System Boosts Holdings in NOV Inc. $NOV

California Public Employees Retirement System increased its position in NOV Inc. (NYSE:NOV) by 15.1% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 935,303 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock after purchasing an additional 122,397 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System owned approximately 0.26% of NOV worth $17,593,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. V Square Quantitative Management LLC bought a new stake in NOV during the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. Root Financial Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of NOV by 39.9% in the first quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 1,937 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 552 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of NOV by 659.3% during the fourth quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 2,278 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 1,978 shares during the last quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC increased its position in shares of NOV by 50.1% during the fourth quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC now owns 2,337 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 780 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allworth Financial LP increased its position in shares of NOV by 37.9% during the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 2,578 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 709 shares in the last quarter. 93.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on NOV. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on NOV from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Capital One Financial raised NOV from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $26.00 target price for the company in a report on Thursday, June 4th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price target on NOV from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. TD Cowen raised NOV from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $21.00 price objective on NOV in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $20.50.

NOV Trading Down 1.1%

NYSE:NOV opened at $20.11 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $7.22 billion, a PE ratio of 83.82 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a current ratio of 2.47, a quick ratio of 1.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $19.74 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $19.33. NOV Inc. has a 12 month low of $11.77 and a 12 month high of $21.55.

NOV (NYSE:NOV) last released its quarterly 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). The firm had revenue of $2.05 billion for 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%. NOV’s quarterly revenue was down 2.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.19 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that NOV Inc. will post 0.9 earnings per share for the current year.

NOV Announces Dividend

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