Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Purchases New Stake in NOV Inc. (NYSE:NOV)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new position in shares of NOV Inc. (NYSE:NOV) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 110,600 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,243,000.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in NOV. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky increased its stake in NOV by 93.5% during the 3rd quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky now owns 134,503 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $2,811,000 after buying an additional 65,006 shares during the period. Schroder Investment Management Group bought a new stake in shares of NOV in the third quarter worth $13,329,000. Sei Investments Co. raised its holdings in NOV by 31.4% in the third quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 620,105 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $12,960,000 after acquiring an additional 148,099 shares in the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its stake in NOV by 27.8% during the 3rd quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 4,990 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $104,000 after acquiring an additional 1,086 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new position in NOV during the 3rd quarter worth $4,314,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.27% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on NOV shares. StockNews.com raised shares of NOV from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Benchmark lowered NOV from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of NOV from $25.00 to $22.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of NOV from $28.00 to $26.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 5th. Finally, TD Cowen reduced their target price on shares of NOV from $31.00 to $30.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 5th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $24.36.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Christy Lynn Novak sold 3,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.43, for a total value of $61,005.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 114,212 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,990,715.16. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 1.85% of the company’s stock.

NOV Stock Performance

NOV opened at $18.86 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $18.37 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $19.21. The company has a market capitalization of $7.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.36 and a beta of 1.74. NOV Inc. has a 1-year low of $14.05 and a 1-year high of $21.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 2.40 and a quick ratio of 1.51.

NOV (NYSE:NOV) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 2nd. The oil and gas exploration company reported $1.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $1.10. NOV had a return on equity of 10.79% and a net margin of 11.57%. The firm had revenue of $2.34 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.26 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.26 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.0% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that NOV Inc. will post 1.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NOV Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were paid a $0.05 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 13th. This represents a $0.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.06%. NOV’s dividend payout ratio is presently 7.97%.

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.