Noble (NYSE:NE) Upgraded at Fearnley Fonds

Noble (NYSE:NE) was upgraded by research analysts at Fearnley Fonds from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report issued on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of Noble from $52.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Noble in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Barclays dropped their price objective on Noble from $56.00 to $55.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Noble from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 2nd. Finally, Zacks Research cut Noble from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $45.00.

Noble Trading Up 4.4%

Shares of NE opened at $40.93 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $43.06 and its 200-day simple moving average is $44.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.53 billion, a PE ratio of 44.02 and a beta of 0.92. Noble has a 12-month low of $25.24 and a 12-month high of $54.98. The company has a quick ratio of 1.99, a current ratio of 1.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42.

Noble (NYSE:NE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 27th. The company reported $0.01 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.15 by ($0.14). The firm had revenue of $719.69 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $697.98 million. Noble had a return on equity of 1.93% and a net margin of 4.88%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.27 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Noble will post 0.81 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Noble news, SVP Blake Denton sold 30,000 shares of Noble stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.31, for a total transaction of $1,479,300.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 29,927 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,475,700.37. The trade was a 50.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Al J. Hirshberg sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.62, for a total value of $263,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 27,803 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,462,993.86. The trade was a 15.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders sold 125,724 shares of company stock valued at $6,049,266. Company insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Noble

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Hosking Partners LLP raised its holdings in Noble by 10.0% during the 4th quarter. Hosking Partners LLP now owns 1,140,328 shares of the company’s stock worth $32,203,000 after buying an additional 103,477 shares during the period. De Lisle Partners LLP acquired a new position in shares of Noble in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $824,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Noble by 77.8% during the fourth 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. Natixis Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Noble during the third quarter worth $3,935,000. Finally, State of Tennessee Department of Treasury acquired a new stake in shares of Noble during the fourth quarter worth $1,109,000. 68.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.