Noble (NYSE:NE) Hits New 12-Month High – Still a Buy?

Noble Corporation PLC (NYSE:NE)’s stock price reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $54.57 and last traded at $54.2280, with a volume of 400808 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $52.90.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on NE. Wall Street Zen upgraded Noble from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 2nd. SEB Equity Research set a $33.00 price objective on Noble in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. BTIG Research lifted their price objective on Noble from $35.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Noble from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Noble from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $45.38.

Noble Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $8.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.95 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a current ratio of 1.99 and a quick ratio of 1.99. The business has a 50-day moving average of $48.75 and a two-hundred day moving average of $39.03.

Noble (NYSE:NE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 27th. The company reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.21 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $785.69 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $730.47 million. Noble had a return on equity of 2.32% and a net margin of 7.17%.The company’s quarterly revenue was down 10.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.26 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Noble Corporation PLC will post 0.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Noble Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 25th. Investors of record on Thursday, June 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 4th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.7%. Noble’s payout ratio is 139.86%.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Jennie Howard sold 2,486 shares of Noble stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.08, for a total transaction of $126,984.88. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 15,676 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $800,730.08. The trade was a 13.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Blake Denton sold 30,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.31, for a total transaction of $1,479,300.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 29,927 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,475,700.37. This represents a 50.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 387,341 shares of company stock valued at $18,217,505. 1.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of NE. Parallel Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Noble by 43.7% in the 1st quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 2,693 shares of the company’s stock worth $132,000 after acquiring an additional 819 shares during the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC purchased a new position in shares of Noble during the 1st quarter worth $218,000. State of Tennessee Department of Treasury purchased a new position in shares of Noble during the 4th quarter worth $1,109,000. Sagefield Capital LP boosted its position in shares of Noble by 40.0% during 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 period. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Noble by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 911,491 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,740,000 after purchasing an additional 24,725 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.