Earnest Partners LLC Buys 77,429 Shares of NOV Inc. $NOV

Earnest Partners LLC increased its stake in NOV Inc. (NYSE:NOV) by 1.9% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 4,106,951 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock after purchasing an additional 77,429 shares during the period. Earnest Partners LLC’s holdings in NOV were worth $54,417,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC lifted its position in NOV by 1,845.9% in the third quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC now owns 235,081 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $3,115,000 after purchasing an additional 223,000 shares during the last quarter. Tejara Capital Ltd grew its holdings in shares of NOV by 33.1% in the third quarter. Tejara Capital Ltd now owns 670,199 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $8,880,000 after purchasing an additional 166,692 shares during the last quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of NOV by 239.0% in the third quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 141,506 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $1,875,000 after buying an additional 99,765 shares during the period. Keybank National Association OH purchased a new position in shares of NOV in the third quarter worth $3,978,000. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in NOV by 43.6% during the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 7,596,504 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $100,654,000 after buying an additional 2,304,975 shares during the last quarter. 93.27% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other NOV news, insider Joseph W. Rovig sold 151,086 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.17, for a total transaction of $3,047,404.62. Following the transaction, the insider owned 269,694 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,439,727.98. This represents a 35.91% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP Craig L. Weinstock sold 70,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.08, for a total value of $1,405,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president directly owned 256,319 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,146,885.52. This represents a 21.45% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 1.85% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NOV has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler raised their price target on shares of NOV from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 9th. TD Cowen downgraded shares of NOV from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 10th. Evercore set a $19.00 target price on shares of NOV in a report on Friday, February 6th. Argus upgraded NOV to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 10th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on NOV from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, NOV presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $18.57.

NOV Stock Down 1.5%

Shares of NYSE NOV opened at $18.44 on Monday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $18.77 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $15.96. NOV Inc. has a 12 month low of $10.84 and a 12 month high of $20.85. The company has a current ratio of 2.42, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.64 billion, a PE ratio of 48.51 and a beta of 0.89.

NOV (NYSE:NOV) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.02 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25 by ($0.23). NOV had a net margin of 1.66% and a return on equity of 3.57%. The company had revenue of $2.28 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.17 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.41 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that NOV Inc. will post 1.4 earnings per share for the current year.

NOV Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be given a dividend of $0.09 per share. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. This is a positive change from NOV’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. NOV’s payout ratio is presently 94.74%.

NOV Company Profile

National Oilwell Varco (NYSE: NOV) is a leading provider of equipment and technology to the oil and gas industry. The company designs, manufactures and services an extensive portfolio of products used in drilling, completion and production operations. Its offerings include drilling rigs and related components, wellbore technologies such as tubulars and completion tools, surface equipment including mud pumps and blowout preventers, and aftermarket parts and services that support ongoing field operations.

NOV’s business is organized to serve upstream energy companies around the world.