Noble (NYSE:NE) Trading Down 5.6% on Insider Selling

Noble Corporation PLC (NYSE:NE)’s share price traded down 5.6% during mid-day trading on Thursday following insider selling activity. The company traded as low as $40.29 and last traded at $40.61. 452,833 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 75% from the average session volume of 1,790,244 shares. The stock had previously closed at $43.03.

Specifically, CEO Robert W. Eifler sold 50,000 shares of Noble stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.51, for a total value of $2,275,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,193,828 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $54,331,112.28. This trade represents a 4.02% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Evercore set a $59.00 price target on Noble in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Barclays raised Noble from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $50.00 to $56.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Citigroup lifted their target price on Noble from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Wall Street Zen raised Noble from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 2nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut Noble from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $45.38.

Noble Trading Down 5.5%

The firm has a market cap of $6.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.40 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a 50 day moving average of $48.99 and a 200 day moving average of $42.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a quick ratio of 1.99 and a current ratio of 1.99.

Noble (NYSE:NE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 27th. The company reported $0.26 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.21 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $785.69 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $730.47 million. Noble had a return on equity of 2.32% and a net margin of 7.17%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.26 EPS. Analysts predict that Noble Corporation PLC will post 0.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Noble Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 25th. Investors of record on Thursday, June 4th will be paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 4th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.9%. Noble’s payout ratio is presently 139.86%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Noble

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in NE. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its stake in shares of Noble by 424.2% in the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 440,342 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,435,000 after buying an additional 356,333 shares in the last quarter. Hara Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Noble in the 4th quarter worth approximately $4,902,000. Natixis Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Noble in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $3,935,000. Hosking Partners LLP lifted its holdings in Noble by 10.0% in the 4th quarter. Hosking Partners LLP now owns 1,140,328 shares of the company’s stock worth $32,203,000 after purchasing an additional 103,477 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sagefield Capital LP lifted its holdings in Noble by 40.0% in the 4th quarter. Sagefield Capital LP now owns 182,844 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,164,000 after purchasing an additional 52,261 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.14% of the company’s stock.

About Noble

Noble (NYSE: NE) is an offshore drilling company that provides drilling services to the global oil and gas industry. The firm operates a fleet of mobile offshore drilling units and delivers contract drilling solutions for exploration and production activities. Its core business centers on executing drilling programs for upstream energy companies across a range of water depths and operating environments.

Products and services include the operation and management of offshore drilling rigs — such as drillships, semisubmersibles and jackups — along with associated technical, engineering and project management services.