Noble (NYSE:NE) Rating Increased to Overweight at Barclays

Barclays upgraded shares of Noble (NYSE:NE) from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating in a research report report published on Thursday, MarketBeat reports. The firm currently has $56.00 target price on the stock, up from their previous target price of $50.00.

Other equities analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Noble from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 2nd. BTIG Research raised their target price on shares of Noble from $35.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 2nd. SEB Equity Research set a $33.00 target price on Noble in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. Evercore set a $59.00 price target on Noble in a report on Monday, April 27th. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded shares of Noble from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday, April 20th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $45.38.

Noble Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:NE traded up $1.75 on Thursday, hitting $50.23. The company had a trading volume of 200,007 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,969,518. Noble has a 52-week low of $22.37 and a 52-week high of $54.57. The company has a market cap of $8.01 billion, a PE ratio of 35.12 and a beta of 0.94. The business has a 50 day moving average of $48.04 and a 200 day moving average of $38.09. The company has a current ratio of 1.99, a quick ratio of 1.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42.

Noble (NYSE:NE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 27th. The company reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.21 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $785.69 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.47 million. Noble had a net margin of 7.17% and a return on equity of 2.32%. The company’s revenue was down 10.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.26 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Noble will post 0.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Noble Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 25th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 4th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.0%. Noble’s payout ratio is currently 139.86%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Noble news, SVP Blake Denton sold 30,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.31, for a total value of $1,479,300.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 29,927 shares in the company, valued at $1,475,700.37. The trade was a 50.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Caroline Alting sold 15,340 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.75, for a total value of $809,185.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 8,170 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $430,967.50. The trade was a 65.25% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 416,631 shares of company stock worth $19,477,224 over the last ninety days. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Westside Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Noble by 156.4% in the 3rd quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 864 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 527 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of Noble by 77.8% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,440 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 630 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Noble by 819.1% during the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,601 shares of the company’s stock worth $69,000 after purchasing an additional 2,318 shares during the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Noble by 43.7% during the 1st quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 2,693 shares of the company’s stock valued at $132,000 after purchasing an additional 819 shares during the period. Finally, Strs Ohio acquired a new stake in Noble in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $142,000. 68.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Noble

Noble (NYSE: NE) is an offshore drilling company that provides drilling services to the global oil and gas industry. The firm operates a fleet of mobile offshore drilling units and delivers contract drilling solutions for exploration and production activities. Its core business centers on executing drilling programs for upstream energy companies across a range of water depths and operating environments.

Products and services include the operation and management of offshore drilling rigs — such as drillships, semisubmersibles and jackups — along with associated technical, engineering and project management services.