Valaris (NYSE:VAL) Trading Up 6% – Here’s What Happened

Valaris Limited (NYSE:VAL) shares shot up 6% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $31.66 and last traded at $31.90. 379,843 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 74% from the average session volume of 1,453,001 shares. The stock had previously closed at $30.10.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on VAL. Evercore ISI lowered Valaris from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and cut their price target for the company from $87.00 to $59.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Citigroup cut their target price on shares of Valaris from $48.00 to $44.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Valaris to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Susquehanna cut their price target on shares of Valaris from $47.00 to $34.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Finally, Barclays decreased their price objective on Valaris from $46.00 to $35.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and six have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $50.33.

Valaris Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 1.59 and a quick ratio of 1.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.25 and a beta of 1.06. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $37.76 and its 200 day simple moving average is $44.35.

Valaris (NYSE:VAL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The company reported $1.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.20 by $0.68. Valaris had a return on equity of 17.40% and a net margin of 15.81%. The business had revenue of $584.40 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $578.01 million. On average, research analysts forecast that Valaris Limited will post 3.96 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Valaris

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

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.