NOV Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NYSE:NOV)

NOV Inc. (NYSE:NOV) saw unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock traders purchased 6,977 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 609% compared to the typical daily volume of 984 call options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NOV news, CAO Christy Lynn Novak sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.43, for a total transaction of $61,005.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 114,212 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,990,715.16. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 1.77% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of NOV

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. CENTRAL TRUST Co increased its stake in shares of NOV by 85.4% in the third quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 1,259 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 580 shares during the last quarter. Covestor Ltd increased its stake in shares of NOV by 94.4% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,287 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 625 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in NOV in the first quarter worth $34,000. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC acquired a new position in NOV in the fourth quarter worth $49,000. Finally, Belpointe Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in NOV by 66.0% in the first quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC now owns 2,491 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 990 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 93.27% of the company’s stock.

NOV Trading Up 0.5 %

NYSE NOV traded up $0.09 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $19.79. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,303,033 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,521,472. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.36 and a beta of 1.74. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $18.29 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $19.27. NOV has a 52-week low of $14.05 and a 52-week high of $21.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 2.40 and a quick ratio of 1.51.

NOV (NYSE:NOV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 2nd. The oil and gas exploration company reported $1.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $1.10. The company had revenue of $2.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.26 billion. NOV had a net margin of 11.57% and a return on equity of 10.79%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 13.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.26 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that NOV will post 1.54 EPS for the current year.

NOV Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $0.05 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 13th. This represents a $0.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.01%. NOV’s dividend payout ratio is currently 7.97%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on NOV. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on shares of NOV from $25.00 to $22.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Benchmark cut shares of NOV from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on shares of NOV from $28.00 to $26.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 5th. Raymond James decreased their target price on shares of NOV from $28.00 to $25.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 5th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of NOV from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $24.36.

NOV Company Profile

NOV Inc designs, constructs, manufactures, and sells systems, components, and products for oil and gas drilling and production, and industrial and renewable energy sectors in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments, Energy Equipment, and Energy Products and Services. The company provides solids control and waste management equipment and services, managed pressure drilling, drilling fluids, premium drillpipe, wired pipe, drilling optimization services, tubular inspection and coating services, instrumentation, downhole tools, and drill bits.