Noble (NYSE:NE) Director Al Hirshberg Sells 5,000 Shares of Stock

Noble Corporation PLC (NYSE:NE) Director Al Hirshberg sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.62, for a total transaction of $263,100.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 27,803 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,462,993.86. This trade represents a 15.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink.

Noble Trading Up 2.8%

Shares of NE opened at $54.36 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a current ratio of 1.99 and a quick ratio of 1.99. Noble Corporation PLC has a 1 year low of $22.37 and a 1 year high of $54.61. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $48.94 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $39.20. The firm has a market cap of $8.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.02 and a beta of 0.94.

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

Noble Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 25th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 4th. Noble’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 139.86%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Noble from $33.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Fearnley Fonds lowered shares of Noble from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. SEB Equity Research set a $33.00 target price on shares of Noble in a report on Tuesday, January 27th. Zacks Research lowered shares of Noble from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday, April 20th. Finally, Susquehanna raised their target price on shares of Noble from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $45.38.

Institutional Trading of Noble

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of NE. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its position in Noble by 424.2% in the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 440,342 shares of the company’s stock worth $12,435,000 after buying an additional 356,333 shares during the last quarter. Hara Capital LLC bought a new stake in Noble in the fourth quarter worth $4,902,000. Natixis Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Noble in the third quarter worth $3,935,000. Hosking Partners LLP lifted its position in Noble by 10.0% in the fourth quarter. Hosking Partners LLP now owns 1,140,328 shares of the company’s stock worth $32,203,000 after buying an additional 103,477 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sagefield Capital LP lifted its position in Noble by 40.0% in the fourth quarter. Sagefield Capital LP now owns 182,844 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,164,000 after buying an additional 52,261 shares during the last quarter. 68.14% of the stock is currently 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.