Noble (NYSE:NE) Director Al Hirshberg Sells 5,000 Shares

Noble Corporation PLC (NYSE:NE) Director Al Hirshberg sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.62, for a total transaction of $263,100.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 27,803 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,462,993.86. The trade was a 15.24% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Noble Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:NE traded up $1.46 on Monday, reaching $54.36. 1,247,773 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,933,970. The company has a fifty day moving average of $48.75 and a 200-day moving average of $39.03. Noble Corporation PLC has a twelve month low of $22.37 and a twelve month high of $54.61. The company has a current ratio of 1.99, a quick ratio of 1.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. The company has a market capitalization of $8.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.02 and a beta of 0.94.

Noble (NYSE:NE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 27th. The company reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 the consensus estimate of $730.47 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.26 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 10.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Noble Corporation PLC will post 0.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Noble Announces Dividend

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Noble

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Hosking Partners LLP increased its position in Noble by 10.0% in the 4th quarter. Hosking Partners LLP now owns 1,140,328 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,203,000 after acquiring an additional 103,477 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its position in Noble by 424.2% in the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 440,342 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,435,000 after acquiring an additional 356,333 shares during the period. Hara Capital LLC acquired a new position in Noble in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $4,902,000. De Lisle Partners LLP acquired a new position in Noble in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $824,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in Noble by 77.8% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,440 shares of the company’s stock valued at $41,000 after acquiring an additional 630 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 68.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NE has been the subject of several research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Noble from $33.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Noble from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Citigroup increased 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. Barclays raised shares of Noble from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $50.00 to $56.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Noble from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 2nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $45.38.

Noble Company Profile

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.