NOV Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:NOV)

NOV Inc. (NYSE:NOV) saw some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Investors purchased 2,616 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of 1,353% compared to the typical volume of 180 put options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NOV

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in NOV. Boston Partners bought a new stake in shares of NOV in the first quarter worth about $119,686,000. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. grew its position 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 worth $125,048,000 after acquiring an additional 5,456,581 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position 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 worth $188,749,000 after acquiring an additional 3,989,095 shares in the last quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC grew its position in NOV by 12.7% in 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 acquiring an additional 3,946,504 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in NOV by 40.0% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 12,138,093 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $230,743,000 after acquiring an additional 3,470,860 shares in the last quarter. 93.27% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on NOV shares. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on shares of NOV from $22.00 to $20.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 15th. Benchmark reissued a “hold” rating on shares of NOV in a report on Friday, July 26th. Barclays raised their price objective on NOV from $17.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on NOV from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded shares of NOV to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $24.42.

NOV Price Performance

NYSE:NOV opened at $16.90 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. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $17.92 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $18.38. The stock has a market cap of $6.68 billion, a PE ratio of 6.79, a P/E/G ratio of 0.47 and a beta of 1.67. NOV has a 52 week low of $15.47 and a 52 week high of $21.71.

NOV (NYSE:NOV) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $2.22 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.19 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.39 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that NOV will post 1.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NOV Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be issued a $0.075 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 13th. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.78%. NOV’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 12.05%.

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.