Noble (NYSE:NE) SVP Blake Denton Sells 23,255 Shares of Stock

Noble Corporation PLC (NYSE:NE) SVP Blake Denton sold 23,255 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.50, for a total value of $1,011,592.50. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 79,261 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,447,853.50. This represents a 22.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

Noble Stock Up 0.9%

NE traded up $0.39 on Thursday, hitting $44.65. The company had a trading volume of 819,914 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,326,951. Noble Corporation PLC has a 1 year low of $17.40 and a 1 year high of $46.31. The company has a current ratio of 1.67, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm has a market cap of $7.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.08 and a beta of 1.12.

Noble (NYSE:NE) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The company reported $0.09 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.15 by ($0.06). The company had revenue of $764.41 million for the quarter. Noble had a return on equity of 2.34% and a net margin of 6.60%.Noble’s revenue for the quarter was down 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.56 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Noble Corporation PLC will post 2.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Noble Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 19th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 4th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.5%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 4th. Noble’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 148.15%.

Key Noble News

Here are the key news stories impacting Noble this week:

• Neutral Sentiment: The company is mentioned in a MarketBeat roundup about dividend and defensive stocks, but Noble (NE) is not a featured pick in that piece — limited direct impact on NE’s near-term outlook.
• Negative Sentiment: Barclays cut Noble from Overweight to Equal Weight while raising its price target to $41 (from $36), signaling a more cautious view despite the higher PT; the $41 PT implies downside versus recent levels and likely weighs on sentiment. Barclays downgrades Noble (The Fly)
• Negative Sentiment: JPMorgan raised its price target on NE to $41 (from $33) but kept a Neutral rating — the higher PT is constructive on valuation but still implies roughly an 8% downside from recent levels, a mixed-to-negative signal for upside expectations. JPMorgan raises price target (Benzinga)
• Negative Sentiment: Several senior Noble executives disclosed material stock sales this week (Blake Denton sold 23,255 shares at ~$43.50; Joey M. Kawaja sold 19,725 shares at ~$43.51; Jennie Howard, Mikkel Ipsen, Caroline Alting also sold shares). These filings show notable reductions in insider ownership percentages and can be interpreted as a near-term negative signal for investor sentiment. Insider sale filing (SEC – Blake Denton)

Institutional Trading of Noble

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of NE. Hosking Partners LLP grew its stake in Noble by 10.0% during the 4th quarter. Hosking Partners LLP now owns 1,140,328 shares of the company’s stock worth $32,203,000 after purchasing an additional 103,477 shares in the last quarter. Hara Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Noble in the 4th quarter valued at about $4,902,000. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its position in shares of Noble by 424.2% during the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 440,342 shares of the company’s stock worth $12,435,000 after buying an additional 356,333 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of Noble by 77.8% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,440 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,000 after buying an additional 630 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Noble by 1.1% during the third quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 886,766 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,078,000 after buying an additional 9,442 shares during the period. 68.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently commented on NE shares. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Noble in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Noble Financial lowered Noble to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, December 1st. SEB Equity Research set a $33.00 target price on Noble in a report on Tuesday, January 27th. Evercore set a $45.00 target price on Noble in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of Noble from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Noble has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $38.63.

About Noble

Noble Corp. Plc engages in the provision offshore drilling services for oil and gas industry. It focuses on a balanced fleet of floating and jackup rigs and the deployment of drilling rigs in oil and gas basins around the world. The company was founded by Lloyd Noble and Art Olson in 1921 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.