Noble (NYSE:NE) SVP Mikkel Ipsen Sells 3,453 Shares of Stock

Noble Corporation PLC (NYSE:NE) SVP Mikkel Ipsen sold 3,453 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.56, for a total transaction of $150,412.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 11,854 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $516,360.24. The trade was a 22.56% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Noble Stock Performance

Shares of Noble stock traded up $0.39 during trading on Thursday, hitting $44.65. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 819,914 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,326,951. Noble Corporation PLC has a 52 week low of $17.40 and a 52 week high of $46.31. The company has a quick ratio of 1.67, a current ratio of 1.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The stock has a market cap of $7.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.08 and a beta of 1.12.

Noble (NYSE:NE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The company reported $0.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by ($0.06). Noble had a return on equity of 2.34% and a net margin of 6.60%.The business had revenue of $764.41 million for the quarter. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.56 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Noble Corporation PLC will post 2.99 EPS for the current year.

Noble Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 19th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 4th. Noble’s dividend payout ratio is 148.15%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Evercore set a $45.00 target price on Noble in a research report on Friday, February 13th. BTIG Research upped their price objective on shares of Noble from $35.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Fearnley Fonds cut shares of Noble from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Noble in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Noble from $33.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $38.63.

Noble News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Noble this week:

• Neutral Sentiment: The company is mentioned in a MarketBeat roundup about dividend and defensive stocks, but Noble (NE) is not a featured pick in that piece — limited direct impact on NE’s near-term outlook.
• Negative Sentiment: Barclays cut Noble from Overweight to Equal Weight while raising its price target to $41 (from $36), signaling a more cautious view despite the higher PT; the $41 PT implies downside versus recent levels and likely weighs on sentiment. Barclays downgrades Noble (The Fly)
• Negative Sentiment: JPMorgan raised its price target on NE to $41 (from $33) but kept a Neutral rating — the higher PT is constructive on valuation but still implies roughly an 8% downside from recent levels, a mixed-to-negative signal for upside expectations. JPMorgan raises price target (Benzinga)
• Negative Sentiment: Several senior Noble executives disclosed material stock sales this week (Blake Denton sold 23,255 shares at ~$43.50; Joey M. Kawaja sold 19,725 shares at ~$43.51; Jennie Howard, Mikkel Ipsen, Caroline Alting also sold shares). These filings show notable reductions in insider ownership percentages and can be interpreted as a near-term negative signal for investor sentiment. Insider sale filing (SEC – Blake Denton)

Institutional Trading of Noble

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of NE. Hosking Partners LLP boosted its position in Noble by 10.0% in the fourth 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. Hara Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Noble during the 4th quarter valued at $4,902,000. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its stake in shares of Noble by 424.2% during the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 440,342 shares of the company’s stock worth $12,435,000 after purchasing an additional 356,333 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Noble by 77.8% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,440 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,000 after buying an additional 630 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Noble by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 886,766 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,078,000 after buying an additional 9,442 shares during the last quarter. 68.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Noble

Noble Corp. Plc engages in the provision offshore drilling services for oil and gas industry. It focuses on a balanced fleet of floating and jackup rigs and the deployment of drilling rigs in oil and gas basins around the world. The company was founded by Lloyd Noble and Art Olson in 1921 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.