Noble Energy (NBL) Stock Falls After Postponing Subsidiary's IPO
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Noble Energy (NBL) - Get Report stock is falling 2.98% to $35.51 in mid-morning trading on Friday, after the company postponed its subsidiary's initial public offering.
The spin-off company, Noble Midstream Partners, has decided to postpone the offering due to unfavorable equity market conditions, the company said in a statement on Thursday.
Last week, the company officially launched Noble Midstream's IPO and said it would price at $19 per share to $21 per share.
The Houston-based Noble Energy, a crude oil and natural gas company, serves a sponsor to Noble Midstream.
Noble Midstream will continue to evaluate the timing of the IPO as market conditions develop, the company said.
Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates NOBLE ENERGY INC as a Hold with a ratings score of C-. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:
We rate NOBLE ENERGY INC (NBL) a HOLD. The primary factors that have impacted our rating are mixed - some indicating strength, some showing weaknesses, with little evidence to justify the expectation of either a positive or negative performance for this stock relative to most other stocks. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures and expanding profit margins. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including a generally disappointing performance in the stock itself, deteriorating net income and disappointing return on equity.
Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:
- NBL, with its decline in revenue, slightly underperformed the industry average of 36.8%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues fell by 37.7%. Weakness in the company's revenue seems to have hurt the bottom line, decreasing earnings per share.
- NBL's debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65 is somewhat low overall, but it is high when compared to the industry average, implying that the management of the debt levels should be evaluated further. Regardless of the somewhat mixed results with the debt-to-equity ratio, the company's quick ratio of 0.76 is weak.
- Net operating cash flow has decreased to $520.00 million or 45.03% when compared to the same quarter last year. In addition, when comparing the cash generation rate to the industry average, the firm's growth is significantly lower.
- Despite any intermediate fluctuations, we have only bad news to report on this stock's performance over the last year: it has tumbled by 36.12%, worse than the S&P 500's performance. Consistent with the plunge in the stock price, the company's earnings per share are down 159.82% compared to the year-earlier quarter. Despite the heavy decline in its share price, this stock is still more expensive (when compared to its current earnings) than most other companies in its industry.
- You can view the full analysis from the report here: NBL
Any reference to TheStreet Ratings and its underlying recommendation does not reflect the opinion of Jim Cramer, TheStreet or any of its contributors.