Noble Corporation PLC (NYSE:NE) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of Noble Corporation PLC (NYSE:NE) have been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the eleven ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $45.3750.

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Noble from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted 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. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Noble from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 19th. Barclays upgraded shares of Noble from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $50.00 to $56.00 in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Noble from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th.

Insider Activity at Noble

In other Noble news, Director Al J. 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 value 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 represents a 15.24% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Joey M. Kawaja sold 40,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.85, for a total transaction of $1,994,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 40,071 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,997,539.35. This represents a 49.96% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 343,550 shares of company stock worth $16,366,436 over the last 90 days. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of NE. Strs Ohio purchased a new position in Noble during the 1st quarter worth $142,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in 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 purchasing an additional 2,318 shares during the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors purchased a new position in Noble during the 2nd quarter worth $359,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. grew its position in 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 purchasing an additional 527 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Natixis Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Noble during the 3rd quarter worth $3,935,000. 68.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Noble Stock Down 2.9%

Shares of NYSE NE opened at $45.32 on Friday. Noble has a 12-month low of $25.24 and a 12-month high of $54.98. The stock has a market cap of $7.23 billion, a PE ratio of 31.70 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a current ratio of 1.99, a quick ratio of 1.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. The company has a 50-day moving average of $49.63 and a 200 day moving average of $41.07.

Noble (NYSE:NE) last posted its earnings results on Monday, April 27th. The company reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.21 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $785.69 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.47 million. Noble had a net margin of 7.17% and a return on equity of 2.32%. Noble’s revenue was down 10.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.26 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Noble will post 0.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Noble Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 25th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 4th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.4%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 4th. Noble’s dividend payout ratio is currently 139.86%.

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.