Man Group plc Invests $4.59 Million in NOV Inc. $NOV

Man Group plc bought a new stake in shares of NOV Inc. (NYSE:NOV) in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 247,469 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,591,000.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in NOV during the second quarter valued at $697,976,000. Pzena Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of NOV in the 2nd quarter worth $674,776,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of NOV by 2.3% in the 1st 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 last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP increased its holdings 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 worth $135,295,000 after buying an additional 158,788 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE raised its position in shares of NOV by 14.8% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 5,346,302 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $70,839,000 after buying an additional 689,427 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.27% of the company’s stock.

NOV Price Performance

NOV stock opened at $20.99 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $7.48 billion, a PE ratio of 80.73 and a beta of 0.92. NOV Inc. has a 12 month low of $12.28 and a 12 month high of $21.67. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $19.63 and a 200 day moving average price of $19.72. The company has a current ratio of 2.42, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27.

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

NOV Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 11th will be paid 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 currently 138.46%.

Insider Buying and Selling at NOV

In other news, Director David D. Harrison sold 9,594 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.21, for a total value of $184,300.74. Following the sale, the director directly owned 126,763 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,435,117.23. This represents a 7.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.15% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $19.00 price target on NOV in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Zacks Research downgraded NOV from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 26th. Barclays lowered their price objective on NOV from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Susquehanna lifted 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 increased their price target on NOV from $25.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, NOV currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $21.31.

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.