Systematic Financial Management LP Decreases Holdings in Noble Corporation PLC $NE

Systematic Financial Management LP decreased its position in shares of Noble Corporation PLC (NYSE:NE) by 1.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 521,753 shares of the company’s stock after selling 10,011 shares during the quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP owned 0.33% of Noble worth $14,734,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Westside Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Noble by 156.4% during 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 in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of Noble by 77.8% during the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,440 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 630 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake 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 acquiring an additional 2,318 shares in the last quarter. Strs Ohio purchased a new stake in shares of Noble during the 1st quarter worth approximately $142,000. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Noble by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 886,766 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,078,000 after acquiring an additional 9,442 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Fearnley Fonds lowered Noble from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 11th. SEB Equity Research set a $33.00 target price on Noble in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. Citigroup upped their target price on Noble from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Barclays upgraded Noble from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $50.00 to $56.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Susquehanna increased their price objective on Noble from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $45.38.

Noble Price Performance

NE stock opened at $52.03 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.39 and a beta of 0.94. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $49.59 and its 200-day simple moving average is $39.87. Noble Corporation PLC has a 52-week low of $22.69 and a 52-week high of $54.98. The company has a quick ratio of 1.99, a current ratio of 1.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42.

Noble (NYSE:NE) last released its earnings results on Monday, April 27th. The company reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.21 by $0.05. Noble had a return on equity of 2.32% and a net margin of 7.17%.The firm had revenue of $785.69 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $730.47 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.26 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Noble Corporation PLC will post 0.93 EPS for the current year.

Noble Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 25th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 4th will be paid a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 4th. Noble’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 139.86%.

Insider Transactions at Noble

In other Noble news, SVP Joey M. Kawaja sold 40,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.85, for a total value of $1,994,000.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 40,071 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,997,539.35. This trade represents a 49.96% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Jennie Howard sold 2,486 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.08, for a total value of $126,984.88. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 15,676 shares in the company, valued at approximately $800,730.08. The trade was a 13.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 343,550 shares of company stock worth $16,366,436 in the last quarter. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Noble Company Profile

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.