Al Hirshberg Sells 5,000 Shares of Noble (NYSE:NE) Stock

Noble Corporation PLC (NYSE:NE) Director Al Hirshberg sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.62, for a total value of $263,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 27,803 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,462,993.86. This represents a 15.24% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link.

Noble Price Performance

Shares of NE stock opened at $54.23 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $49.15 and a 200 day moving average price of $39.38. The company has a quick ratio of 1.99, a current ratio of 1.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. The firm has a market cap of $8.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.93 and a beta of 0.94. Noble Corporation PLC has a 12 month low of $22.37 and a 12 month high of $54.61.

Noble (NYSE:NE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 27th. The company reported $0.26 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.21 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $785.69 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.47 million. Noble had a return on equity of 2.32% and a net margin of 7.17%.The company’s revenue was down 10.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.26 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Noble Corporation PLC will post 0.93 EPS for the current year.

Noble Announces Dividend

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Noble

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Noble by 20.4% in the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,080 shares of the company’s stock valued at $151,000 after buying an additional 521 shares during the period. Westside Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Noble by 156.4% in the third quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 864 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 527 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in Noble by 77.8% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,440 shares of the company’s stock valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 630 shares during the period. Parallel Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Noble by 43.7% in the first quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 2,693 shares of the company’s stock valued at $132,000 after buying an additional 819 shares during the period. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC acquired a new position in Noble in the first quarter valued at about $218,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Evercore set a $59.00 price objective on Noble in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Noble from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. BTIG Research increased their target price on Noble from $35.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Wall Street Zen raised Noble from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 2nd. Finally, Zacks Research lowered Noble from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $45.38.

Noble Company Profile

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.