Investors Buy Large Volume of NOV Call Options (NYSE:NOV)

NOV Inc. (NYSE:NOV) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Stock investors acquired 10,075 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 2,770% compared to the typical daily volume of 351 call options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on NOV shares. Barclays decreased their price objective on NOV from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 31st. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of NOV in a report on Monday, September 21st. Zacks Research cut NOV from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 26th. Susquehanna boosted their target price on NOV from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of NOV from $25.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $21.23.

NOV Price Performance

Shares of NOV traded down $0.46 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $18.55. 1,294,038 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,257,981. 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 has a 52-week low of $12.28 and a 52-week high of $21.93. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $20.34 and a two-hundred day moving average of $19.92. The company has a market cap of $6.61 billion, a PE ratio of 71.10 and a beta of 0.97.

NOV (NYSE:NOV) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 company had revenue of $2.13 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.08 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.29 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that NOV will post 0.99 earnings per share for the current year.

NOV Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 25th. Investors of record on Friday, September 11th were given a dividend of $0.09 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 11th. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. NOV’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 138.46%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director David Harrison sold 9,594 shares of NOV stock in a transaction on Friday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.21, for a total value of $184,300.74. Following the sale, the director owned 126,763 shares in the company, valued at $2,435,117.23. The trade was a 7.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 1.15% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of NOV in the 2nd quarter valued at $697,976,000. Pzena Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in NOV in the second quarter valued at about $674,776,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in NOV by 2.3% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 19,404,319 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $364,987,000 after buying an additional 431,684 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of NOV by 2.3% in the 1st quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 7,192,735 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $135,295,000 after acquiring an additional 158,788 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE boosted its position in shares of NOV by 17.0% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 4,575,450 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $86,064,000 after purchasing an additional 664,969 shares during the period. 93.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About NOV

NOV Inc is a global provider of equipment, technologies and services used in the oil and gas industry and related energy markets. The company supplies products for drilling, well construction, completion, production and maintenance activities across the energy value chain.

NOV’s offerings include land and offshore drilling rigs, rig equipment, hoisting systems, top drives, mud pumps, drill bits, downhole tools, wellbore technologies, completion equipment and production systems. Its technologies are used by exploration and production companies, drilling contractors and oilfield service providers in onshore and offshore operations.

The company serves customers in major energy-producing regions around the world, including North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific.