Noble Corporation PLC Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.50 (NYSE:NE)

Noble Corporation PLC (NYSE:NE) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 11th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 4th will be given a dividend of 0.50 per share on Thursday, March 19th. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 4th.

Noble has a dividend payout ratio of 71.7% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Noble to earn $4.31 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 46.4%.

Noble Stock Up 1.2%

NYSE:NE opened at $45.45 on Monday. Noble has a one year low of $17.40 and a one year high of $47.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 1.67 and a quick ratio of 1.67. The company has a market cap of $7.24 billion, a PE ratio of 33.67 and a beta of 1.07. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $35.83 and its 200 day simple moving average is $31.65.

Noble (NYSE:NE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The company reported $0.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.15 by ($0.06). Noble had a net margin of 6.60% and a return on equity of 2.34%. The business had revenue of $764.41 million for the quarter. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.56 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Noble will post 2.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NE has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Barclays lowered Noble from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their price target for the company from $36.00 to $41.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. Fearnley Fonds cut Noble from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. Noble Financial downgraded shares of Noble to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, December 1st. SEB Equity Research set a $33.00 price target on shares of Noble in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Noble in a research note on Monday, December 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $38.63.

About Noble

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.