Valaris Limited (NYSE:VAL) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Buy” from Analysts

Valaris Limited (NYSE:VAL) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Buy” from the five analysts that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $100.00.

VAL has been the subject of several recent research reports. TheStreet raised Valaris from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on Valaris from $107.00 to $105.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. StockNews.com raised Valaris to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Barclays lowered their price target on Valaris from $105.00 to $102.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th.

Valaris Trading Up 0.4 %

NYSE:VAL opened at $67.76 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 1.71 and a quick ratio of 1.71. Valaris has a fifty-two week low of $54.13 and a fifty-two week high of $78.92. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $69.58 and its two-hundred day moving average is $68.11. The stock has a market cap of $4.91 billion, a PE ratio of 5.80 and a beta of 1.13.

Valaris (NYSE:VAL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The company reported $0.61 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.29 by $0.32. Valaris had a return on equity of 5.71% and a net margin of 48.50%. The company had revenue of $483.80 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $484.00 million. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Valaris will post 4.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Valaris

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in VAL. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Valaris by 31.8% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,812,867 shares of the company’s stock worth $285,889,000 after buying an additional 919,123 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Valaris during the fourth quarter worth approximately $43,282,000. Lancaster Investment Management acquired a new position in shares of Valaris in the fourth quarter valued at $27,436,000. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG acquired a new position in shares of Valaris in the third quarter valued at $27,063,000. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Valaris by 157.1% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 587,780 shares of the company’s stock valued at $44,072,000 after purchasing an additional 359,168 shares in the last quarter. 96.74% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Valaris

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.