Noble (NYSE:NE) Director Charles Sledge Sells 724 Shares of Stock

Noble Corporation PLC (NYSE:NE) Director Charles Sledge sold 724 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.61, for a total transaction of $37,365.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 1,360 shares in the company, valued at $70,189.60. This represents a 34.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink.

Noble Stock Performance

Shares of NE opened at $51.25 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a quick ratio of 1.99 and a current ratio of 1.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.84 and a beta of 0.94. The company’s fifty day moving average is $48.48 and its two-hundred day moving average is $38.72. Noble Corporation PLC has a 1 year low of $22.37 and a 1 year high of $54.57.

Noble (NYSE:NE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 27th. The company reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $730.47 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.26 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Noble Corporation PLC will post 0.93 earnings per share for the current year.

Noble Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 25th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 4th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.9%. Noble’s dividend payout ratio is 139.86%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Noble

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Westside Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 527 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of Noble by 77.8% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,440 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,000 after buying an additional 630 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Noble by 819.1% in the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,601 shares of the company’s stock worth $69,000 after buying an additional 2,318 shares in the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Noble by 43.7% in the 1st quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 2,693 shares of the company’s stock worth $132,000 after buying an additional 819 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Noble in the 1st quarter worth about $218,000. 68.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NE has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. BTIG Research upped their price target on shares of Noble from $35.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Noble from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 2nd. Zacks Research cut shares of Noble from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Noble from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, Barclays raised shares of Noble from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $50.00 to $56.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $45.38.

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.