Noble (NYSE:NE) Cut to Sell at Wall Street Zen

Posted by Brenda Bartman on Aug 4th, 2026

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Noble (NYSE:NE – Free Report) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a report issued on Saturday morning.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Susquehanna cut their price target on Noble from $55.00 to $40.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. Zacks Research cut Noble from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Evercore set a $59.00 target price on Noble in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Noble from $55.00 to $53.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Finally, Fearnley Fonds upgraded shares of Noble from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $44.71.

Get Our Latest Report on Noble

Noble Stock Down 4.7%

NE opened at $40.41 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $6.45 billion, a PE ratio of 43.45 and a beta of 0.93. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $42.42 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $44.46. The company has a quick ratio of 1.91, a current ratio of 1.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. Noble has a 52 week low of $25.61 and a 52 week high of $54.98.

Noble (NYSE:NE – Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Monday, July 27th. The company reported $0.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.15 by ($0.14). The firm had revenue of $719.69 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $697.98 million. Noble had a return on equity of 1.93% and a net margin of 4.88%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.27 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Noble will post 0.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Noble Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 24th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 3rd. Noble’s payout ratio is presently 215.05%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Noble news, CEO Robert W. Eifler sold 50,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.51, for a total transaction of $2,275,500.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,193,828 shares in the company, valued at $54,331,112.28. This represents a 4.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Al J. Hirshberg sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.62, for a total value of $263,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 27,803 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,462,993.86. The trade was a 15.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders have sold 85,724 shares of company stock valued at $4,055,266. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Noble

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of NE. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its position in Noble by 44.4% in the second quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,243 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 382 shares during the last quarter. Rathbones Group PLC bought a new position in Noble during the first quarter valued at $308,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Noble by 20.4% during the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,080 shares of the company’s stock valued at $151,000 after acquiring an additional 521 shares during the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC raised 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 valued at $132,000 after acquiring an additional 819 shares during the period. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Noble in the first quarter valued at $218,000. 68.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Noble Company Profile

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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.