Valaris (NYSE:VAL) Trading Down 3.5% – Time to Sell?

Valaris Limited (NYSE:VAL) shares dropped 3.5% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $39.46 and last traded at $39.24. Approximately 38,983 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 97% from the average daily volume of 1,359,249 shares. The stock had previously closed at $40.64.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. Evercore ISI downgraded Valaris from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $87.00 to $59.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. StockNews.com raised Valaris to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. started coverage on shares of Valaris in a report on Friday, December 6th. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $40.00 target price on the stock. Citigroup cut their price target on shares of Valaris from $48.00 to $44.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Valaris from $49.00 to $46.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and six have assigned a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $54.33.

Valaris Trading Down 1.7 %

The stock has a market cap of $2.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.78 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a current ratio of 1.59, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $41.91 and its 200 day simple moving average is $46.30.

Valaris (NYSE:VAL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The company reported $1.88 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.20 by $0.68. Valaris had a net margin of 15.81% and a return on equity of 17.40%. The business had revenue of $584.40 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $578.01 million. As a group, analysts expect that Valaris Limited will post 3.96 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Valaris

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Valaris by 55.5% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,300,577 shares of the company’s stock worth $101,771,000 after purchasing an additional 821,304 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Valaris in the 4th quarter valued at about $31,949,000. Condire Management LP grew its position in shares of Valaris by 34.1% during the 4th quarter. Condire Management LP now owns 2,618,678 shares of the company’s stock worth $115,850,000 after buying an additional 665,718 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Valaris during the fourth quarter worth approximately $21,747,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Valaris by 942.1% during the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 381,463 shares of the company’s stock worth $16,502,000 after buying an additional 344,857 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 96.74% of the company’s stock.

Valaris Company Profile

Valaris Limited, together with its subsidiaries, provides offshore contract drilling services Gulf of Mexico, South America, North Sea, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. The company operates through four segments: Floaters, Jackups, ARO, and Other. It owns an offshore drilling rig fleet, which include drillships, dynamically positioned semisubmersible rigs, moored semisubmersible rig, and jackup rigs.