Stock Traders Buy High Volume of NOV Put Options (NYSE:NOV)

NOV Inc. (NYSE:NOV) saw unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock investors bought 2,616 put options on the company. This is an increase of 1,353% compared to the average volume of 180 put options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently commented on NOV shares. Bank of America decreased their price objective on NOV from $24.00 to $22.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 15th. Barclays upped their price target on NOV from $17.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on NOV from $22.00 to $20.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 15th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $24.00 target price on shares of NOV in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised shares of NOV to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $24.08.

NOV Price Performance

NOV stock opened at $17.99 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.64, a current ratio of 2.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. NOV has a 52-week low of $16.77 and a 52-week high of $21.91. The firm has a market cap of $7.12 billion, a PE ratio of 7.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.59 and a beta of 1.70. The company’s 50 day moving average is $18.46 and its two-hundred day moving average is $18.58.

NOV (NYSE:NOV) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.35 by $0.22. NOV had a return on equity of 10.97% and a net margin of 11.88%. The business had revenue of $2.22 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.19 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.39 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that NOV will post 1.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NOV Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 14th were given a dividend of $0.075 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 14th. This is an increase from NOV’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.05. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.67%. NOV’s payout ratio is currently 12.05%.

Institutional Trading of NOV

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in NOV. Boston Partners acquired a new position in shares of NOV during the 1st quarter worth about $119,686,000. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. boosted its holdings in NOV by 769.1% in the fourth quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 6,166,061 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $125,048,000 after purchasing an additional 5,456,581 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in NOV by 67.2% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 9,928,911 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $188,749,000 after purchasing an additional 3,989,095 shares during the last quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in NOV by 12.7% during the first quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 35,072,648 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $684,618,000 after purchasing an additional 3,946,504 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its position in shares of NOV by 779.9% during the 1st quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 858,823 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $16,764,000 after buying an additional 761,219 shares during the last quarter. 93.27% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About NOV

NOV Inc designs, constructs, manufactures, and sells systems, components, and products for oil and gas drilling and production, and industrial and renewable energy sectors in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments, Energy Equipment, and Energy Products and Services. The company provides solids control and waste management equipment and services, managed pressure drilling, drilling fluids, premium drillpipe, wired pipe, drilling optimization services, tubular inspection and coating services, instrumentation, downhole tools, and drill bits.