Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of NOV Put Options (NYSE:NOV)

NOV Inc. (NYSE:NOV) was the target of some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Stock traders purchased 2,616 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 1,353% compared to the average volume of 180 put options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently weighed in on NOV shares. Evercore set a $19.00 target price on shares of NOV in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of NOV from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Morgan Stanley set a $16.00 price objective on NOV in a report on Monday, December 15th. Citigroup increased their target price on NOV from $17.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. Finally, Barclays upgraded NOV from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $15.00 to $20.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $18.57.

NOV Trading Down 0.7%

Shares of NOV stock opened at $18.68 on Thursday. NOV has a 12-month low of $10.84 and a 12-month high of $20.85. The company has a market capitalization of $6.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.16 and a beta of 0.89. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $19.12 and a 200 day moving average price of $16.46. The company has a quick ratio of 1.67, a current ratio of 2.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27.

NOV (NYSE:NOV) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 5th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.02 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.25 by ($0.23). The firm had revenue of $2.28 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.17 billion. NOV had a return on equity of 3.57% and a net margin of 1.66%.NOV’s quarterly revenue was down 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.41 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that NOV will post 1.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NOV Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 27th. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th were given a dividend of $0.09 per share. This is a boost from NOV’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 13th. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. NOV’s dividend payout ratio is currently 94.74%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other NOV news, insider Joseph W. Rovig sold 151,086 shares of NOV stock in a transaction on Monday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.17, for a total transaction of $3,047,404.62. Following the sale, the insider owned 269,694 shares in the company, valued at $5,439,727.98. The trade was a 35.91% 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. Also, VP Craig L. Weinstock sold 70,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.08, for a total transaction of $1,405,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 256,319 shares in the company, valued at $5,146,885.52. This trade represents a 21.45% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 2.08% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NOV

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in NOV by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,088,655 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $32,646,000 after purchasing an additional 60,148 shares in the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV increased its stake in shares of NOV by 64.0% in the fourth quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 47,164 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $737,000 after buying an additional 18,404 shares in the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd bought a new position in shares of NOV in the fourth quarter valued at about $3,173,000. Numerai GP LLC lifted its position in NOV by 30.7% during the 4th quarter. Numerai GP LLC now owns 15,366 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $240,000 after buying an additional 3,607 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Old West Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in NOV during the 4th quarter worth about $865,000. Institutional investors own 93.27% of the company’s stock.

About NOV

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.