Heartland Advisors Inc. Sells 682,627 Shares of NOV Inc. $NOV

Heartland Advisors Inc. lowered its stake in shares of NOV Inc. (NYSE:NOV) by 37.8% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 1,125,080 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock after selling 682,627 shares during the period. Heartland Advisors Inc.’s holdings in NOV were worth $14,907,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Arizona State Retirement System lifted its stake in NOV by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 111,185 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $1,473,000 after purchasing an additional 678 shares in the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp increased its holdings in shares of NOV by 7.6% in the third quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 11,759 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $156,000 after purchasing an additional 827 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its position in shares of NOV by 25.3% in the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 6,738 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $89,000 after buying an additional 1,359 shares in the last quarter. denkapparat Operations GmbH boosted its stake in NOV by 14.2% during the second quarter. denkapparat Operations GmbH now owns 12,834 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $160,000 after buying an additional 1,600 shares during the period. Finally, Profund Advisors LLC grew its position in NOV by 4.8% during the second quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 35,169 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $437,000 after buying an additional 1,611 shares in the last quarter. 93.27% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on NOV. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 price target on shares of NOV in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “sell” rating and issued a $17.00 target price on shares of NOV in a research note on Wednesday, January 14th. Evercore set a $19.00 price target on shares of NOV in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Argus raised shares of NOV to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 10th. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their target price on NOV from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, NOV currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $18.40.

NOV Trading Up 1.1%

Shares of NYSE:NOV opened at $19.21 on Tuesday. 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 Inc. has a 1 year low of $10.84 and a 1 year high of $19.60. The company has a market cap of $6.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.55 and a beta of 0.93. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $17.37 and its 200-day moving average price is $14.99.

NOV (NYSE:NOV) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. 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 business had revenue of $2.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.17 billion. NOV had a return on equity of 3.57% and a net margin of 1.66%.NOV’s quarterly revenue was down 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.41 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that NOV Inc. will post 1.4 earnings per share for the current year.

NOV Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 5th were given a $0.075 dividend. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 5th. NOV’s payout ratio is 78.95%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Christian S. Kendall purchased 70,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 purchase, the director directly owned 85,949 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,242,822.54. This represents a 438.90% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.85% of the company’s stock.

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.