Vest Financial LLC Buys 91,272 Shares of NOV Inc. $NOV

Vest Financial LLC raised its stake in NOV Inc. (NYSE:NOV) by 31.7% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 379,056 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock after acquiring an additional 91,272 shares during the quarter. Vest Financial LLC’s holdings in NOV were worth $5,022,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Pzena Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of NOV by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 42,708,890 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $530,872,000 after buying an additional 1,144,486 shares during the period. First Pacific Advisors LP grew its stake in NOV by 101.0% in the second quarter. First Pacific Advisors LP now owns 7,018,950 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $87,246,000 after acquiring an additional 3,526,754 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of NOV by 27.2% during the second quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 6,091,095 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $75,712,000 after acquiring an additional 1,302,214 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in shares of NOV by 585.8% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 5,291,529 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $65,774,000 after purchasing an additional 4,519,957 shares during the period. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of NOV by 401.9% in the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,165,518 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $39,347,000 after purchasing an additional 2,534,815 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.27% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Christian S. Kendall bought 70,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 21st. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $14.46 per share, for a total transaction of $1,012,200.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 85,949 shares in the company, valued at $1,242,822.54. The trade was a 438.90% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 2.08% of the company’s stock.

NOV Stock Performance

Shares of NOV opened at $18.41 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $16.15 and a 200 day moving average of $14.28. The company has a market capitalization of $6.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.41, a PEG ratio of 4.68 and a beta of 0.95. NOV Inc. has a 12 month low of $10.84 and a 12 month high of $18.50. The company has a current ratio of 2.55, a quick ratio of 1.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26.

NOV (NYSE:NOV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 28th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.11 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.24 by ($0.13). NOV had a return on equity of 5.89% and a net margin of 4.36%.During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.33 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down .7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that NOV Inc. will post 1.4 earnings per share for the current year.

NOV Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 19th. Investors of record on Friday, December 5th were issued a dividend of $0.075 per share. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 5th. NOV’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 30.00%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have commented on NOV shares. Morgan Stanley set a $16.00 price target on shares of NOV in a research note on Monday, December 15th. Zacks Research raised shares of NOV from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 6th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $21.00 price target on shares of NOV in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of NOV in a report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on NOV from $13.00 to $15.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $16.92.

NOV Profile

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.