Robert Eifler Sells 50,000 Shares of Noble (NYSE:NE) Stock

Noble Corporation PLC (NYSE:NE) CEO Robert Eifler sold 50,000 shares of Noble stock in a transaction dated 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 owned 1,193,828 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $54,331,112.28. This represents a 4.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Noble Trading Down 3.5%

Shares of NYSE NE opened at $41.54 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.99, a quick ratio of 1.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.63 billion, a PE ratio of 29.05 and a beta of 0.89. Noble Corporation PLC has a twelve month low of $25.24 and a twelve month high of $54.98. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $48.80 and a 200-day simple moving average of $42.08.

Noble (NYSE:NE) last announced its earnings results on Monday, April 27th. The company reported $0.26 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.21 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $785.69 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $730.47 million. Noble had a return on equity of 2.32% and a net margin of 7.17%.Noble’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.26 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Noble Corporation PLC will post 0.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Noble Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 25th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 4th will be given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 4th. Noble’s payout ratio is 139.86%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Evercore set a $59.00 price target on shares of Noble in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Zacks Research raised Noble from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 19th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Noble from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Susquehanna raised their price target on Noble from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 7th. Finally, Barclays raised Noble from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $50.00 to $56.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $45.38.

Institutional Trading of Noble

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in NE. Hosking Partners LLP increased its position in shares of Noble by 10.0% in the fourth quarter. Hosking Partners LLP now owns 1,140,328 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,203,000 after buying an additional 103,477 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its stake in Noble by 424.2% in the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 440,342 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,435,000 after acquiring an additional 356,333 shares during the last quarter. Hara Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Noble in the 4th quarter valued at about $4,902,000. De Lisle Partners LLP purchased a new position in Noble during the 4th quarter valued at about $824,000. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in Noble by 20.4% during the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,080 shares of the company’s stock worth $151,000 after acquiring an additional 521 shares during the last quarter. 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.