Citigroup Cuts Valaris (NYSE:VAL) Price Target to $71.00

Valaris (NYSE:VAL) had its target price decreased by Citigroup from $95.00 to $71.00 in a research note released on Thursday, Benzinga reports. Citigroup currently has a buy rating on the stock.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Benchmark restated a buy rating and issued a $90.00 price target on shares of Valaris in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Pickering Energy Partners lowered Valaris from an outperform rating to a neutral rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price target on Valaris from $98.00 to $91.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Valaris has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $91.40.

Valaris Price Performance

Shares of NYSE VAL opened at $54.38 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.73, a quick ratio of 1.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The stock has a market cap of $3.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.76 and a beta of 1.17. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $66.98 and a two-hundred day moving average of $70.14. Valaris has a twelve month low of $53.06 and a twelve month high of $84.20.

Valaris (NYSE:VAL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The company reported $2.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.96 by $1.07. The firm had revenue of $610.10 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $545.00 million. Valaris had a net margin of 49.33% and a return on equity of 12.58%. On average, research analysts forecast that Valaris will post 4.37 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Valaris news, COO Gilles Luca sold 30,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.86, for a total transaction of $1,705,800.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 108,342 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,160,326.12. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, COO Gilles Luca sold 30,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.86, for a total transaction of $1,705,800.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 108,342 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,160,326.12. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Davor Vukadin sold 15,403 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.64, for a total value of $872,425.92. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 13,334 shares in the company, valued at approximately $755,237.76. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.12% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Valaris

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in VAL. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in Valaris by 18.5% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 870,063 shares of the company’s stock worth $59,662,000 after acquiring an additional 135,753 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in Valaris by 34.4% during the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 789,854 shares of the company’s stock valued at $54,160,000 after buying an additional 202,074 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners increased its position in Valaris by 33.9% during the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 8,370 shares of the company’s stock worth $574,000 after buying an additional 2,121 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Valaris by 10.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 6,323 shares of the company’s stock worth $434,000 after acquiring an additional 592 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Valaris in the fourth quarter valued at $1,571,000. 96.74% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Valaris

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.