Noble (NYSE:NE) Trading Down 5.6% on Insider Selling

Shares of Noble Corporation PLC (NYSE:NE) fell 5.6% during trading on Thursday after an insider sold shares in the company. The stock traded as low as $40.29 and last traded at $40.61. 452,833 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 75% from the average session volume of 1,790,244 shares. The stock had previously closed at $43.03.

Specifically, CEO Robert W. Eifler sold 50,000 shares of Noble stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.51, for a total transaction of $2,275,500.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,193,828 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $54,331,112.28. The trade was a 4.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on NE shares. Barclays upgraded shares of Noble from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $50.00 to $56.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Evercore set a $59.00 price objective on shares of Noble in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Noble from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Noble from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 2nd. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of Noble from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 19th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $45.38.

Noble Trading Down 5.5%

The business has a fifty day moving average of $48.99 and a 200-day moving average of $42.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.40 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a current ratio of 1.99 and a quick ratio of 1.99.

Noble (NYSE:NE) last released its earnings results on Monday, April 27th. The company reported $0.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.21 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $785.69 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.47 million. Noble had a return on equity of 2.32% and a net margin of 7.17%.Noble’s revenue was down 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.26 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Noble Corporation PLC will post 0.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Noble Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 25th. Investors of record on Thursday, June 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 4th. Noble’s payout ratio is presently 139.86%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Noble by 20.4% during the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,080 shares of the company’s stock worth $151,000 after acquiring an additional 521 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in Noble by 77.8% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,440 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 630 shares in the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC increased its stake in Noble by 43.7% in the 1st quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 2,693 shares of the company’s stock worth $132,000 after purchasing an additional 819 shares in the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC purchased a new position in Noble in the 1st quarter worth about $218,000. Finally, Strs Ohio purchased a new position in Noble in the 1st quarter worth about $142,000. 68.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.