Insider Selling: Noble (NYSE:NE) Director Sells $263,100.00 in Stock

Noble Corporation PLC (NYSE:NEGet Free Report) Director Al Hirshberg sold 5,000 shares of Noble stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.62, for a total transaction of $263,100.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 27,803 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,462,993.86. This trade represents a 15.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink.

Noble Trading Down 0.5%

Shares of NYSE NE opened at $54.01 on Thursday. Noble Corporation PLC has a 1 year low of $22.37 and a 1 year high of $54.98. The stock has a market cap of $8.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.77 and a beta of 0.94. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $49.31 and a 200 day moving average of $39.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a current ratio of 1.99 and a quick ratio of 1.99.

Noble (NYSE:NEGet Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 27th. The company reported $0.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.21 by $0.05. Noble had a net margin of 7.17% and a return on equity of 2.32%. The company had revenue of $785.69 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $730.47 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.26 EPS. Noble’s revenue was down 10.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Noble Corporation PLC will post 0.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Noble Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 25th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.7%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 4th. Noble’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 139.86%.

Institutional Trading of Noble

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in NE. Westside Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Noble by 156.4% in the third 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 period. GAMMA Investing LLC grew 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 acquiring an additional 630 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake 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. Parallel Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Noble by 43.7% in the first quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 2,693 shares of the company’s stock worth $132,000 after acquiring an additional 819 shares during the period. Finally, Strs Ohio bought a new stake in shares of Noble in the first quarter worth approximately $142,000. 68.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have weighed in on NE shares. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Noble from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Noble from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. BTIG Research raised their price objective on shares of Noble from $35.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Barclays upgraded shares of Noble from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $50.00 to $56.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered shares of Noble from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $45.38.

Read Our Latest Analysis on NE

Noble Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Noble (NYSE: NE) is an offshore drilling company that provides drilling services to the global oil and gas industry. The firm operates a fleet of mobile offshore drilling units and delivers contract drilling solutions for exploration and production activities. Its core business centers on executing drilling programs for upstream energy companies across a range of water depths and operating environments.

Products and services include the operation and management of offshore drilling rigs — such as drillships, semisubmersibles and jackups — along with associated technical, engineering and project management services.

Further Reading

Insider Buying and Selling by Quarter for Noble (NYSE:NE)

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