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

NOV Inc. (NYSE:NOV) saw some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock traders bought 2,616 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 1,353% compared to the typical volume of 180 put options.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, VP Craig L. Weinstock sold 70,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.08, for a total value of $1,405,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president directly owned 256,319 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,146,885.52. This trade represents a 21.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Joseph W. Rovig sold 151,086 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.17, for a total transaction of $3,047,404.62. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 269,694 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,439,727.98. This trade represents a 35.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 2.08% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of NOV by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 18,972,635 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $296,547,000 after acquiring an additional 394,582 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in shares of NOV by 43.6% during the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 7,596,504 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $100,654,000 after acquiring an additional 2,304,975 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of NOV by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 7,033,947 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $109,941,000 after acquiring an additional 25,610 shares in the last quarter. Greenhaven Associates Inc. raised its stake in shares of NOV by 15.4% during the third quarter. Greenhaven Associates Inc. now owns 5,747,682 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $76,157,000 after acquiring an additional 765,166 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in shares of NOV by 14.8% during the third quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 5,346,302 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $70,839,000 after acquiring an additional 689,427 shares in the last quarter. 93.27% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NOV has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. TD Cowen lowered shares of NOV from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 10th. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of NOV from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Royal Bank Of Canada downgraded shares of NOV from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a $21.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of NOV from $17.00 to $20.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 11th. Finally, Susquehanna raised their target price on shares of NOV from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 7th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $18.93.

NOV Trading Down 0.2%

Shares of NOV opened at $19.06 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $19.24 and its 200 day simple moving average is $16.90. The company has a market capitalization of $6.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.15 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 2.42 and a quick ratio of 1.67. NOV has a 1-year low of $11.44 and a 1-year high of $20.85.

NOV (NYSE:NOV) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.02 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25 by ($0.23). The company had revenue of $2.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.17 billion. NOV had a net margin of 1.66% and a return on equity of 3.57%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.41 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that NOV will post 1.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NOV Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th were paid a dividend of $0.09 per share. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. This is a boost from NOV’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 13th. NOV’s payout ratio is 94.74%.

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.