Noble (NYSE:NE) SVP Sells $255,948.00 in Stock

Noble Corporation PLC (NYSE:NE) SVP Jennie Howard sold 6,094 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.00, for a total transaction of $255,948.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 18,162 shares in the company, valued at approximately $762,804. The trade was a 25.12% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link.

Noble Stock Up 1.0%

Shares of NE stock traded up $0.42 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $44.68. 639,609 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,321,360. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 1.67 and a quick ratio of 1.67. Noble Corporation PLC has a 1-year low of $17.40 and a 1-year high of $46.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.12 and a beta of 1.12.

Noble (NYSE:NE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The company reported $0.09 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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%.The company’s revenue was down 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.56 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Noble Corporation PLC will post 2.99 EPS for the current year.

Noble Dividend Announcement

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Noble

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Westside Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake 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 during the last quarter. Salomon & Ludwin LLC purchased a new position in shares of Noble in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $40,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Noble by 77.8% in the fourth 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 last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Noble by 819.1% in the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,601 shares of the company’s stock worth $69,000 after acquiring an additional 2,318 shares during the period. Finally, Strs Ohio acquired a new position in shares of Noble during the first quarter valued at approximately $142,000. 68.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on NE shares. Fearnley Fonds downgraded shares of Noble from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 11th. SEB Equity Research set a $33.00 target price on shares of Noble in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Noble in a report on Monday, December 29th. Evercore set a $45.00 price target on shares of Noble in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their target price on Noble from $34.00 to $32.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $38.63.

About Noble

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.