Leuthold Group LLC Buys Shares of 26,851 NOV Inc. $NOV

Leuthold Group LLC bought a new stake in NOV Inc. (NYSE:NOV) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 26,851 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock, valued at approximately $420,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in NOV by 0.9% in the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 18,578,053 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $246,159,000 after purchasing an additional 161,414 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in shares of NOV by 43.6% during the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 7,596,504 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $100,654,000 after acquiring an additional 2,304,975 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of NOV by 15.1% during the third quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 7,008,337 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $92,860,000 after acquiring an additional 917,242 shares during the last quarter. Greenhaven Associates Inc. grew its stake in shares of NOV by 15.4% during the third quarter. Greenhaven Associates Inc. now owns 5,747,682 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $76,157,000 after acquiring an additional 765,166 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE grew its stake in shares of NOV by 14.8% during the third quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 5,346,302 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $70,839,000 after acquiring an additional 689,427 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.27% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Joseph W. Rovig sold 151,086 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.17, for a total value of $3,047,404.62. Following the sale, the insider owned 269,694 shares in the company, valued at $5,439,727.98. This represents a 35.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP Craig L. Weinstock sold 70,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.08, for a total value of $1,405,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president owned 256,319 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,146,885.52. This represents a 21.45% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 1.15% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on NOV shares. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on NOV from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on NOV from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Susquehanna boosted their price target on NOV from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Citigroup boosted their price target on NOV from $17.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 11th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on NOV from $17.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $19.36.

NOV Price Performance

Shares of NYSE NOV opened at $20.34 on Monday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $19.41 and its 200 day moving average price is $17.88. The firm has a market cap of $7.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 84.77 and a beta of 0.92. NOV Inc. has a 52 week low of $11.65 and a 52 week high of $20.93. The company has a quick ratio of 1.66, a current ratio of 2.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27.

NOV (NYSE:NOV) last issued its earnings results on Monday, April 27th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.05 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.17 by ($0.12). The firm had revenue of $2.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.05 billion. NOV had a net margin of 1.05% and a return on equity of 3.34%. NOV’s quarterly revenue was down 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.19 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that NOV Inc. will post 0.93 earnings per share for the current year.

NOV Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 27th. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th were given a $0.09 dividend. This is an increase from NOV’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 13th. NOV’s payout ratio is currently 150.00%.

NOV 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.