Investors Purchase High Volume of Put Options on NOV (NYSE:NOV)

NOV Inc. (NYSE:NOV) saw unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Traders purchased 2,616 put options on the company. This is an increase of 1,353% compared to the average daily volume of 180 put options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of NOV from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of NOV from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of NOV from $20.00 to $19.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on shares of NOV from $16.00 to $13.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Finally, Raymond James raised their price objective on shares of NOV from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, NOV has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $18.00.

NOV Price Performance

NOV stock opened at $12.88 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $13.12 and its 200 day moving average price is $14.52. NOV has a 1 year low of $10.84 and a 1 year high of $21.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.00, a P/E/G ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 1.64 and a current ratio of 2.46.

NOV (NYSE:NOV) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 28th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.19 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25 by ($0.06). The firm had revenue of $2.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.11 billion. NOV had a net margin of 7.16% and a return on equity of 9.88%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.30 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that NOV will post 1.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NOV Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a $0.075 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.33%. NOV’s payout ratio is currently 20.00%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NOV. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of NOV by 12,344.0% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 12,309,433 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $179,718,000 after acquiring an additional 12,210,514 shares during the period. First Pacific Advisors LP purchased a new position in shares of NOV during the 4th quarter worth $39,495,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of NOV during the 1st quarter worth $33,742,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of NOV by 13.0% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 16,793,128 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $245,178,000 after acquiring an additional 1,934,243 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of NOV by 85.9% during the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 3,784,096 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $55,248,000 after acquiring an additional 1,748,816 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.27% of the company’s stock.

About NOV

NOV Inc designs, constructs, manufactures, and sells systems, components, and products for oil and gas drilling and production, and industrial and renewable energy sectors in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments, Energy Equipment, and Energy Products and Services. The company provides solids control and waste management equipment and services, managed pressure drilling, drilling fluids, premium drillpipe, wired pipe, drilling optimization services, tubular inspection and coating services, instrumentation, downhole tools, and drill bits.