Empirical Finance LLC Lowers Stake in NOV Inc. $NOV

Empirical Finance LLC lowered its holdings in shares of NOV Inc. (NYSE:NOV) by 51.6% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 37,695 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock after selling 40,241 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in NOV were worth $699,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Royal Bank of Canada boosted its holdings in NOV by 15.6% in the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 49,721 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $756,000 after buying an additional 6,711 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its stake in shares of NOV by 35.5% in the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 161,927 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $2,465,000 after acquiring an additional 42,462 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its stake in NOV by 17.4% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 1,062,292 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $16,168,000 after purchasing an additional 157,385 shares during the period. Focus Partners Wealth purchased a new stake in shares of NOV during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $214,000. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers acquired a new position in shares of NOV in the 2nd quarter valued at $190,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.27% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director David Harrison sold 9,594 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.21, for a total transaction of $184,300.74. Following the sale, the director owned 126,763 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,435,117.23. The trade was a 7.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 1.15% of the company’s stock.

NOV Stock Down 0.9%

NOV stock opened at $21.33 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.42, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $20.15 and a two-hundred day moving average of $19.84. NOV Inc. has a twelve month low of $12.28 and a twelve month high of $21.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 82.03 and a beta of 0.94.

NOV (NYSE:NOV) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 28th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.17 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $2.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.08 billion. NOV had a net margin of 1.10% and a return on equity of 3.44%. NOV’s revenue was down 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.29 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that NOV Inc. will post 0.99 earnings per share for the current year.

NOV Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of NOV from $20.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, June 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $19.00 price objective on NOV in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Morgan Stanley set a $21.00 target price on NOV in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Susquehanna raised their price objective on shares of NOV from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Capital One Financial upgraded shares of NOV from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $26.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, June 4th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $21.31.

NOV Profile

NOV Inc is a global provider of equipment, technologies and services used in the oil and gas industry. The company supplies products for drilling, well construction, completion and production operations, serving onshore and offshore customers across the energy value chain.

Its offerings include land and offshore drilling equipment, rig systems, drilling tools, tubular-handling equipment, wellbore technologies, completion tools and production systems. NOV also provides aftermarket parts, technical support, repair and maintenance services, and other solutions intended to improve the efficiency, safety and reliability of energy operations.

NOV serves customers in major energy-producing regions around the world through manufacturing, service and distribution operations.