Noble Corporation PLC $NE Shares Sold by Valueworks LLC

Valueworks LLC lessened its holdings in Noble Corporation PLC (NYSE:NE) by 10.0% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 103,797 shares of the company’s stock after selling 11,533 shares during the quarter. Valueworks LLC’s holdings in Noble were worth $3,872,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its position in shares of Noble by 44.4% during the second quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,243 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,000 after acquiring an additional 382 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Noble by 819.1% in the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,601 shares of the company’s stock valued at $69,000 after purchasing an additional 2,318 shares during the period. Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 819 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC acquired a new position in Noble during the 1st quarter worth $218,000. Finally, Strs Ohio acquired a new position in Noble during the 1st quarter worth $142,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on NE shares. Citigroup reduced their price target on Noble from $52.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. Fearnley Fonds raised Noble from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Zacks Research lowered shares of Noble from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 22nd. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Noble from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. Finally, Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Noble from $55.00 to $53.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Noble has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $44.71.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Robert W. Eifler sold 50,000 shares of Noble stock in a transaction on Monday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.51, for a total transaction of $2,275,500.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,193,828 shares in the company, valued at $54,331,112.28. This trade represents a 4.02% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 1.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Noble Stock Performance

Shares of NE opened at $46.77 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $7.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.29 and a beta of 0.93. Noble Corporation PLC has a 52-week low of $26.69 and a 52-week high of $54.98. The company has a quick ratio of 1.91, a current ratio of 1.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $41.78 and a 200 day moving average price of $45.64.

Noble (NYSE:NE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 27th. The company reported $0.01 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by ($0.14). The company had revenue of $719.69 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $697.98 million. Noble had a return on equity of 1.93% and a net margin of 4.88%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.27 EPS. Research analysts predict that Noble Corporation PLC will post 0.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Noble Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 24th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 3rd will be given a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 3rd. Noble’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 215.05%.

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.