Retirement Systems of Alabama Acquires 58,700 Shares of NOV Inc. (NYSE:NOV)

Retirement Systems of Alabama boosted its holdings in NOV Inc. (NYSE:NOV - Free Report) by 6.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 923,174 shares of the oil and gas exploration company's stock after purchasing an additional 58,700 shares during the period. Retirement Systems of Alabama owned about 0.23% of NOV worth $18,722,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. GAMMA Investing LLC acquired a new position in NOV in the fourth quarter worth about $61,000. CWM LLC grew its position in shares of NOV by 10.8% in the 4th quarter. CWM LLC now owns 5,480 shares of the oil and gas exploration company's stock worth $111,000 after acquiring an additional 536 shares in the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its stake in NOV by 11.7% during the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 82,331 shares of the oil and gas exploration company's stock worth $1,670,000 after acquiring an additional 8,591 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its stake in NOV by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 154,285 shares of the oil and gas exploration company's stock valued at $3,129,000 after acquiring an additional 2,079 shares during the period. Finally, Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new position in shares of NOV during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,243,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.27% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently issued reports on NOV. Raymond James reduced their price objective on NOV from $28.00 to $25.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 5th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a "sector perform" rating and issued a $24.00 price objective on shares of NOV in a research report on Tuesday, February 6th. StockNews.com raised shares of NOV from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Benchmark lowered shares of NOV from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Finally, TD Cowen reduced their price objective on NOV from $27.00 to $26.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $24.07.

NOV Price Performance

NYSE:NOV traded down $0.11 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $18.38. 2,735,614 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,352,136. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.27 billion, a PE ratio of 7.38, a PEG ratio of 0.84 and a beta of 1.74. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $18.67 and a 200 day moving average price of $19.13. The company has a current ratio of 2.50, a quick ratio of 1.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. NOV Inc. has a 1-year low of $14.05 and a 1-year high of $21.91.

NOV (NYSE:NOV - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.27 by $0.03. NOV had a net margin of 11.23% and a return on equity of 10.21%. The business had revenue of $2.16 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.11 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.32 earnings per share. NOV's quarterly revenue was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that NOV Inc. will post 1.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NOV Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were issued a dividend of $0.05 per share. This represents a $0.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.09%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 13th. NOV's dividend payout ratio is currently 8.03%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Christy Lynn Novak sold 3,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $17.43, for a total transaction of $61,005.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 114,212 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,990,715.16. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 1.85% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

NOV Company Profile

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.