Noble Corporation PLC (NYSE:NE) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Noble Corporation PLC (NYSE:NE) has earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the eleven ratings firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $45.3750.

Several research firms have commented on NE. Evercore set a $59.00 target price on shares of Noble in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Noble from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 2nd. Weiss Ratings downgraded Noble from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Citigroup raised their target price on Noble from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, Barclays raised Noble from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $50.00 to $56.00 in a report on Thursday, May 7th.

Noble Price Performance

Shares of NE opened at $46.81 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $7.47 billion, a PE ratio of 32.73 and a beta of 0.89. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $49.77 and its 200 day moving average price is $40.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a quick ratio of 1.99 and a current ratio of 1.99. Noble has a twelve month low of $25.24 and a twelve month high of $54.98.

Noble (NYSE:NE) last posted its earnings results on Monday, April 27th. The company reported $0.26 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.21 by $0.05. Noble had a net margin of 7.17% and a return on equity of 2.32%. The company had revenue of $785.69 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $730.47 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.26 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Noble will post 0.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Noble Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 25th. Investors of record on Thursday, June 4th will be given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 4th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.3%. Noble’s dividend payout ratio is 139.86%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Noble

In related news, SVP Joey M. Kawaja sold 40,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.85, for a total transaction of $1,994,000.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 40,071 shares in the company, valued at $1,997,539.35. This represents a 49.96% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Al J. Hirshberg sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.62, for a total value of $263,100.00. Following the sale, the director owned 27,803 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,462,993.86. This trade represents a 15.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 343,550 shares of company stock worth $16,366,436 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in Noble by 20.4% in the 1st 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 last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC raised its stake in Noble by 43.7% during the 1st quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 2,693 shares of the company’s stock worth $132,000 after buying an additional 819 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC acquired a new stake in Noble during the 1st quarter worth $218,000. State of Tennessee Department of Treasury acquired a new stake in shares of Noble in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,109,000. Finally, Sagefield Capital LP raised its stake in shares of Noble by 40.0% in the 4th quarter. Sagefield Capital LP now owns 182,844 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,164,000 after purchasing an additional 52,261 shares during the period. 68.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.