36,376,087 Shares in NOV Inc. $NOV Acquired by Pzena Investment Management LLC

Pzena Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in NOV Inc. (NYSE:NOV) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund acquired 36,376,087 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock, valued at approximately $674,776,000. NOV comprises approximately 2.0% of Pzena Investment Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 21st largest position. Pzena Investment Management LLC owned approximately 0.10% of NOV as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of NOV. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of NOV by 4.5% in the first quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 12,484 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $235,000 after purchasing an additional 541 shares during the last quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of NOV by 36.8% during the first quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd now owns 2,030 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 546 shares in the last quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of NOV by 39.9% during the first quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 1,937 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 552 shares during the last quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System increased its holdings in NOV by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 86,777 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $1,632,000 after buying an additional 600 shares in the last quarter. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in NOV by 9.0% in the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 7,384 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $115,000 after buying an additional 611 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.27% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of NOV in a research note on Wednesday, June 24th. Capital One Financial upgraded shares of NOV from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $26.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 4th. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of NOV from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley set a $21.00 price objective on shares of NOV in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Finally, Evercore upgraded shares of NOV to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, NOV presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $21.31.

NOV Trading Up 2.2%

Shares of NOV stock opened at $21.60 on Tuesday. NOV Inc. has a 1-year low of $12.09 and a 1-year high of $21.62. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $19.57 and its 200-day simple moving average is $19.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 2.42 and a quick ratio of 1.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.70 billion, a PE ratio of 83.08 and a beta of 0.92.

NOV (NYSE:NOV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 28th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.17 by $0.14. NOV had a return on equity of 3.44% and a net margin of 1.10%.The firm had revenue of $2.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.08 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.29 EPS. NOV’s revenue was down 2.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that NOV Inc. will post 0.94 earnings per share for the current year.

NOV Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a special dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 12th were issued a dividend of $0.09 per share. This represents a yield of 170.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 12th. NOV’s payout ratio is currently 138.46%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director David D. Harrison sold 9,594 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.21, for a total value of $184,300.74. Following the transaction, the director owned 126,763 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,435,117.23. This trade represents a 7.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 1.15% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About NOV

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.