Valaris (NYSE:VAL) Stock Rating Raised to “Hold” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Valaris (NYSE:VAL) to a hold rating in a research note released on Saturday morning,Wall Street Zen reports.

Several other equities analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. Susquehanna upped their price objective on shares of Valaris from $80.00 to $86.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, October 5th. Weiss Ratings raised Valaris from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Monday, August 17th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Valaris presently has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $67.80.

Valaris Trading Up 1.9%

Shares of VAL opened at $85.35 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 1.55 and a quick ratio of 1.55. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $84.55 and a 200-day simple moving average of $86.85. Valaris has a 1-year low of $47.37 and a 1-year high of $114.12. The stock has a market cap of $5.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.37 and a beta of 1.04.

Valaris (NYSE:VAL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.31 by $0.41. Valaris had a return on equity of 9.25% and a net margin of 43.95%. The firm had revenue of $539.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $488.52 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.61 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 12.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Valaris will post 3.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Valaris

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Merrion Investment Management Co LLC purchased a new position in shares of Valaris during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $1,649,000. Milestone Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Valaris during the 3rd quarter worth $212,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC grew its holdings in Valaris by 59.6% during the 3rd quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 838 shares of the company’s stock worth $66,000 after acquiring an additional 313 shares in the last quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue increased its position in shares of Valaris by 34.7% in the 3rd quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 8,503 shares of the company’s stock worth $666,000 after purchasing an additional 2,192 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Valaris by 6.9% in the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,162 shares of the company’s stock worth $248,000 after purchasing an additional 203 shares during the last quarter. 96.74% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Valaris

Valaris Limited (NYSE: VAL) is an offshore drilling contractor that provides drilling services to oil and gas companies worldwide. The company operates a fleet of offshore rigs, including drillships, semisubmersible rigs and jackup rigs, used to explore for and develop offshore energy resources.

Its services support drilling programs in a range of offshore environments, from shallow-water projects using jackup rigs to deepwater and ultra-deepwater operations using drillships and semisubmersible rigs.