Susquehanna Issues Positive Forecast for Noble (NYSE:NE) Stock Price

Noble (NYSE:NE) had its target price hoisted by equities research analysts at Susquehanna from $45.00 to $50.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “neutral” rating on the stock. Susquehanna’s price objective points to a potential downside of 0.42% from the stock’s previous close.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Evercore set a $45.00 target price on shares of Noble in a research report on Friday, February 13th. BTIG Research upped their target price on shares of Noble from $35.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. SEB Equity Research set a $33.00 target price on shares of Noble in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Noble from $33.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Noble in a research report on Monday, December 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $39.25.

Noble Trading Up 1.4%

NE stock traded up $0.69 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $50.21. The company had a trading volume of 77,638 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,085,874. 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 firm has a 50-day moving average price of $44.59 and a 200-day moving average price of $35.05. Noble has a 12 month low of $17.51 and a 12 month high of $51.61. The stock has a market cap of $8.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.21 and a beta of 1.00.

Noble (NYSE:NE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 11th. The company reported $0.09 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.15 by ($0.06). The company had revenue of $764.41 million during the quarter. Noble had a return on equity of 2.34% and a net margin of 6.60%.Noble’s revenue was down 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.56 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Noble will post 2.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Mikkel Ipsen sold 3,453 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.56, for a total value of $150,412.68. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 11,854 shares in the company, valued at $516,360.24. This represents a 22.56% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Richard B. Barker sold 150,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $46.63, for a total transaction of $6,994,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 164,781 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,683,738.03. This represents a 47.65% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 328,805 shares of company stock worth $15,067,754 over the last 90 days. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Noble

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 356,333 shares in the last quarter. Hara Capital LLC acquired a new position in Noble in the 4th quarter worth $4,902,000. De Lisle Partners LLP acquired a new position in Noble in the 4th quarter worth $824,000. Hosking Partners LLP boosted its stake in Noble by 10.0% in the 4th 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 period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 630 shares during the period. Institutional investors 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.