First Bank & Trust Raises Position in Newpark Resources, Inc. (NYSE:NR)

First Bank & Trust increased its stake in Newpark Resources, Inc. (NYSE:NR) by 26.6% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 19,739 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,150 shares during the quarter. First Bank & Trust’s holdings in Newpark Resources were worth $164,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of NR. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Newpark Resources by 5.2% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,153,464 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $40,859,000 after purchasing an additional 303,236 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Newpark Resources by 4.0% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,187,037 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $28,932,000 after buying an additional 162,941 shares during the period. Yarra Square Partners LP increased its position in shares of Newpark Resources by 48.5% during the fourth quarter. Yarra Square Partners LP now owns 814,100 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $5,406,000 after buying an additional 266,000 shares during the period. Ancora Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Newpark Resources by 182.5% in the first quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 647,930 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $4,678,000 after buying an additional 418,570 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Roubaix Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of Newpark Resources by 43.7% in the first quarter. Roubaix Capital LLC now owns 622,965 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $4,498,000 after acquiring an additional 189,333 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.81% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on NR. HC Wainwright reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $12.00 target price on shares of Newpark Resources in a research note on Wednesday. B. Riley increased their price objective on Newpark Resources from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 6th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Newpark Resources from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat.com, Newpark Resources presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $11.00.

Newpark Resources Price Performance

NYSE NR traded down $0.18 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $7.83. 351,231 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 673,025. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 2.79 and a quick ratio of 1.74. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $8.00 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $7.34. Newpark Resources, Inc. has a 1 year low of $5.06 and a 1 year high of $8.65. The company has a market cap of $667.13 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.53 and a beta of 2.89.

Newpark Resources (NYSE:NR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 5th. The oil and gas company reported $0.12 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.08 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $179.01 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $171.04 million. Newpark Resources had a return on equity of 6.67% and a net margin of 2.25%. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.08 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Newpark Resources, Inc. will post 0.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Newpark Resources

Newpark Resources, Inc provides products, rentals, and services primarily to the oil and natural gas exploration and production (E&P) industry. It operates through two segments, Fluids Systems and Industrial Solutions. The Fluids Systems segment provides drilling, completion, and stimulation fluids products and related technical services to customers primarily in the North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, as well as other countries in the Asia Pacific and Latin America.