Loomis Sayles & Co. L P Lowers Holdings in Valaris Limited (NYSE:VAL)

Loomis Sayles & Co. L P lowered its position in Valaris Limited (NYSE:VAL) by 90.7% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 15,945 shares of the company’s stock after selling 155,630 shares during the quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P’s holdings in Valaris were worth $705,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. WINTON GROUP Ltd grew its position in shares of Valaris by 28.9% during the 4th quarter. WINTON GROUP Ltd now owns 25,103 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,111,000 after buying an additional 5,630 shares in the last quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC grew its holdings in Valaris by 42.8% during the 4th quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC now owns 5,568 shares of the company’s stock worth $246,000 after acquiring an additional 1,668 shares in the last quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC purchased a new position in Valaris during the 4th quarter valued at about $10,578,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Valaris by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,454,159 shares of the company’s stock valued at $285,532,000 after purchasing an additional 23,509 shares during the period. Finally, LPL Financial LLC raised its holdings in shares of Valaris by 101.4% in the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 21,322 shares of the company’s stock valued at $943,000 after purchasing an additional 10,737 shares in the last quarter. 96.74% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VAL has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Susquehanna dropped their price objective on shares of Valaris from $50.00 to $47.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Barclays cut their price target on Valaris from $49.00 to $46.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on Valaris from $48.00 to $44.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. StockNews.com upgraded Valaris to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. began coverage on shares of Valaris in a research report on Friday, December 6th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $40.00 price target for the company. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and six have assigned a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Valaris has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $54.33.

Valaris Stock Down 2.3 %

Shares of VAL stock opened at $39.44 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $42.25 and its 200 day moving average price is $46.56. Valaris Limited has a 1-year low of $31.15 and a 1-year high of $84.20. The company has a market cap of $2.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.67 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 1.59 and a quick ratio of 1.61.

Valaris (NYSE:VAL) last issued 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 analyst estimates of $578.01 million. On average, research analysts expect that Valaris Limited will post 3.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.