The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Takes $4.73 Million Position in NOV Inc. $NOV

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company purchased a new stake in NOV Inc. (NYSE:NOV) in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm purchased 254,796 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,726,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Ally Financial Inc. bought a new stake in NOV during the 2nd quarter valued at $464,000. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp bought a new position in shares of NOV during the 2nd quarter worth $317,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of NOV during the second quarter valued at $372,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of NOV in the second quarter valued at about $824,000. Finally, Kiltearn Partners LLP bought a new stake in shares of NOV in the second quarter valued at about $4,668,000. 93.27% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at NOV

In other news, Director David D. Harrison sold 9,594 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.21, for a total transaction of $184,300.74. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 126,763 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,435,117.23. This represents a 7.04% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 1.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on NOV. Susquehanna increased their target price on shares of NOV from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Capital One Financial upgraded shares of NOV from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $26.00 price target for the company in a report on Thursday, June 4th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of NOV from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley set a $21.00 price objective on shares of NOV in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded shares of NOV from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 26th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $21.31.

NOV Stock Up 1.2%

NYSE:NOV opened at $21.24 on Tuesday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $19.68 and its 200-day simple moving average is $19.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a current ratio of 2.42. NOV Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $12.28 and a fifty-two week high of $21.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 81.69 and a beta of 0.92.

NOV (NYSE:NOV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 28th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.17 by $0.14. NOV had a net margin of 1.10% and a return on equity of 3.44%. The firm had revenue of $2.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.08 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.29 EPS. NOV’s revenue was down 2.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that NOV Inc. will post 0.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NOV Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 11th will be given a dividend of $0.09 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 11th. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.7%. NOV’s dividend payout ratio is presently 138.46%.

NOV Company Profile

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.