Caroline Alting Sells 4,195 Shares of Noble (NYSE:NE) Stock

Noble Corporation PLC (NYSE:NE) SVP Caroline Alting sold 4,195 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.60, for a total transaction of $182,902.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 23,510 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,025,036. This represents a 15.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

Noble Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE NE traded up $0.50 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $44.76. 907,942 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,328,056. The stock has a market cap of $7.13 billion, a PE ratio of 33.13 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a current ratio of 1.67. Noble Corporation PLC has a twelve month low of $17.40 and a twelve month high of $46.31.

Noble (NYSE:NE) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 net margin of 6.60% and a return on equity of 2.34%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.56 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Noble Corporation PLC will post 2.99 EPS for the current year.

Noble Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 19th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 4th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 4th. Noble’s dividend payout ratio is currently 148.15%.

Trending Headlines about Noble

Here are the key news stories impacting Noble this week:

• Neutral Sentiment: The company is mentioned in a MarketBeat roundup about dividend and defensive stocks, but Noble (NE) is not a featured pick in that piece — limited direct impact on NE’s near-term outlook.
• Negative Sentiment: Barclays cut Noble from Overweight to Equal Weight while raising its price target to $41 (from $36), signaling a more cautious view despite the higher PT; the $41 PT implies downside versus recent levels and likely weighs on sentiment. Barclays downgrades Noble (The Fly)
• Negative Sentiment: JPMorgan raised its price target on NE to $41 (from $33) but kept a Neutral rating — the higher PT is constructive on valuation but still implies roughly an 8% downside from recent levels, a mixed-to-negative signal for upside expectations. JPMorgan raises price target (Benzinga)
• Negative Sentiment: Several senior Noble executives disclosed material stock sales this week (Blake Denton sold 23,255 shares at ~$43.50; Joey M. Kawaja sold 19,725 shares at ~$43.51; Jennie Howard, Mikkel Ipsen, Caroline Alting also sold shares). These filings show notable reductions in insider ownership percentages and can be interpreted as a near-term negative signal for investor sentiment. Insider sale filing (SEC – Blake Denton)

Institutional Trading of Noble

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Westside Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Noble by 156.4% during the 3rd quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 864 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 527 shares in the last quarter. Salomon & Ludwin LLC bought a new stake in Noble during the third quarter worth $40,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Noble by 77.8% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,440 shares of the company’s stock valued at $41,000 after purchasing an additional 630 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Noble by 819.1% in the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,601 shares of the company’s stock valued at $69,000 after purchasing an additional 2,318 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Strs Ohio bought a new position in shares of Noble in the 1st quarter valued at $142,000. Institutional investors own 68.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on NE shares. Susquehanna boosted their target price on shares of Noble from $32.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Noble Financial downgraded shares of Noble to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, December 1st. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Noble in a research report on Monday, December 29th. BTIG Research lifted their price target 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. Finally, Barclays cut Noble from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $36.00 to $41.00 in a research note on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Noble has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $38.63.

Noble Company Profile

Noble Corp. Plc engages in the provision offshore drilling services for oil and gas industry. It focuses on a balanced fleet of floating and jackup rigs and the deployment of drilling rigs in oil and gas basins around the world. The company was founded by Lloyd Noble and Art Olson in 1921 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.