California State Teachers Retirement System Boosts Holdings in NOV Inc. $NOV

California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its stake in shares of NOV Inc. (NYSE:NOV) by 20.4% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 422,834 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock after acquiring an additional 71,754 shares during the period. California State Teachers Retirement System’s holdings in NOV were worth $7,954,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. increased its holdings in shares of NOV by 203.9% during the 4th quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 85,897 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $1,343,000 after buying an additional 57,634 shares during the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new position in NOV in the first quarter valued at $2,331,000. Lee Danner & Bass Inc. grew its position in NOV by 55.3% during the first quarter. Lee Danner & Bass Inc. now owns 280,800 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $5,282,000 after acquiring an additional 100,000 shares during the period. Vest Financial LLC grew its position in NOV by 13.5% during the fourth quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 430,231 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $6,725,000 after acquiring an additional 51,175 shares during the period. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC increased its stake in NOV by 749.2% during the first quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 360,729 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $6,785,000 after acquiring an additional 318,248 shares during the last quarter. 93.27% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NOV has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of NOV in a research note on Wednesday, June 24th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their target price on shares of NOV from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of NOV from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 28th. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of NOV from $20.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, Evercore raised shares of NOV to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $21.31.

NOV Trading Up 2.6%

NOV opened at $20.00 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $19.56 and its 200-day moving average is $19.46. NOV Inc. has a 52-week low of $11.77 and a 52-week high of $21.55. The company has a quick ratio of 1.61, a current ratio of 2.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 76.90 and a beta of 0.92.

NOV (NYSE:NOV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.17 by $0.14. NOV had a net margin of 1.10% and a return on equity of 3.44%. The business had revenue of $2.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.08 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.29 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 2.5% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that NOV Inc. will post 0.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NOV Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a special dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 12th were given a $0.09 dividend. This represents a dividend yield of 170.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 12th. NOV’s dividend payout ratio is presently 138.46%.

Insider Transactions at NOV

In other NOV news, Director David D. Harrison sold 9,594 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.21, for a total transaction of $184,300.74. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 126,763 shares in the company, valued at $2,435,117.23. This represents a 7.04% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 1.15% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

NOV Profile

National Oilwell Varco (NYSE: NOV) is a leading provider of equipment and technology to the oil and gas industry. The company designs, manufactures and services an extensive portfolio of products used in drilling, completion and production operations. Its offerings include drilling rigs and related components, wellbore technologies such as tubulars and completion tools, surface equipment including mud pumps and blowout preventers, and aftermarket parts and services that support ongoing field operations.

NOV’s business is organized to serve upstream energy companies around the world.