Heartland Advisors Inc. Makes New $20.56 Million Investment in NOV Inc. $NOV

Heartland Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of NOV Inc. (NYSE:NOV) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm bought 1,108,587 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,564,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of NOV during the 2nd quarter valued at about $697,976,000. Pzena Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in NOV in the second quarter worth $674,776,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in NOV by 1,743.9% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,059,400 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $79,080,000 after purchasing an additional 4,785,015 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in shares of NOV in the 2nd quarter worth about $54,767,000. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of NOV by 401.9% in the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,165,518 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $39,347,000 after acquiring an additional 2,534,815 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

Several research firms have recently issued reports on NOV. Citigroup raised their price objective on NOV from $20.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Evercore upgraded shares of NOV to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Susquehanna lifted their price target on shares of NOV from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Morgan Stanley set a $21.00 price objective on shares of NOV in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group set a $19.00 price target on shares of NOV in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. One equities research 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 given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $21.31.

NOV Trading Up 0.9%

Shares of NOV stock opened at $20.46 on Friday. NOV Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $12.28 and a fifty-two week high of $21.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 78.69 and a beta of 0.92. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $19.53 and its two-hundred day moving average is $19.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a current ratio of 2.42.

NOV (NYSE:NOV) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.17 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $2.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.08 billion. NOV had a net margin of 1.10% and a return on equity of 3.44%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.29 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that NOV Inc. will post 0.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NOV Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 11th will be issued a $0.09 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 11th. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.8%. NOV’s dividend payout ratio is presently 138.46%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

About NOV

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.