First Trust Advisors LP Raises Stock Position in NOV Inc. $NOV

First Trust Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of NOV Inc. (NYSE:NOV) by 2.3% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,192,735 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock after buying an additional 158,788 shares during the quarter. First Trust Advisors LP’s holdings in NOV were worth $135,295,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of NOV by 4.5% during the first quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 12,484 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $235,000 after acquiring an additional 541 shares during the period. Root Financial Partners LLC boosted its holdings in NOV by 39.9% in the first quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 1,937 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 552 shares during the period. State of Michigan Retirement System boosted its holdings in NOV by 0.7% in the first quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 86,777 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $1,632,000 after purchasing an additional 600 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in NOV by 9.0% during the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 7,384 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $115,000 after purchasing an additional 611 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allworth Financial LP increased its holdings in NOV by 37.9% during the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 2,578 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 709 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.27% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on NOV shares. Barclays reiterated an “underweight” rating and issued a $21.00 price objective (up from $20.00) on shares of NOV in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of NOV in a research note on Wednesday, June 24th. Susquehanna lowered their price target on shares of NOV from $24.00 to $22.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $19.00 price objective on shares of NOV in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Evercore raised shares of NOV to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $20.50.

NOV Stock Performance

NYSE NOV opened at $20.11 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $19.74 and a two-hundred day moving average of $19.33. The company has a market capitalization of $7.22 billion, a PE ratio of 83.82 and a beta of 0.91. NOV Inc. has a 1 year low of $11.77 and a 1 year high of $21.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 2.47 and a quick ratio of 1.66.

NOV (NYSE:NOV) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.05 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.17 by ($0.12). NOV had a return on equity of 3.34% and a net margin of 1.05%.The firm had revenue of $2.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.05 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.19 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that NOV Inc. will post 0.9 earnings per share for the current year.

NOV Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a special dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 12th were given a dividend of $0.09 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 12th. This represents a yield of 170.0%. NOV’s payout ratio is 150.00%.

About NOV

National Oilwell Varco (NYSE: NOV) is a leading provider of equipment and technology to the oil and gas industry. The company designs, manufactures and services an extensive portfolio of products used in drilling, completion and production operations. Its offerings include drilling rigs and related components, wellbore technologies such as tubulars and completion tools, surface equipment including mud pumps and blowout preventers, and aftermarket parts and services that support ongoing field operations.

NOV’s business is organized to serve upstream energy companies around the world.