NOV Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:NOV)

NOV Inc. (NYSE:NOV) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Stock investors purchased 12,510 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 1,628% compared to the average daily volume of 724 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Pzena Investment Management LLC raised its stake in NOV by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 35,175,886 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $668,694,000 after acquiring an additional 103,238 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in NOV by 40.0% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 12,138,093 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $230,743,000 after acquiring an additional 3,470,860 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in NOV by 67.2% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 9,928,911 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $188,749,000 after purchasing an additional 3,989,095 shares in the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. boosted its stake in shares of NOV by 769.1% in the fourth quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 6,166,061 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $125,048,000 after buying an additional 5,456,581 shares during the period. Finally, Boston Partners bought a new stake in NOV during the first quarter worth about $119,686,000. 93.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

NOV Stock Performance

Shares of NOV stock opened at $16.90 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $17.89 and a 200 day simple moving average of $18.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 2.61 and a quick ratio of 1.64. The firm has a market cap of $6.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.79, a P/E/G ratio of 0.47 and a beta of 1.67. NOV has a fifty-two week low of $15.47 and a fifty-two week high of $21.71.

NOV (NYSE:NOV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.35 by $0.22. NOV had a return on equity of 10.97% and a net margin of 11.88%. The company had revenue of $2.22 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.19 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.39 earnings per share. NOV’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that NOV will post 1.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NOV Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be given a $0.075 dividend. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 13th. NOV’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 12.05%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on NOV. Evercore ISI raised NOV to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on NOV from $25.00 to $23.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $24.00 target price on shares of NOV in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of NOV from $17.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Bank of America decreased their price target on shares of NOV from $24.00 to $22.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $24.42.

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.