NOV Inc.

NOV Inc. (NYSE: NOV), formerly National Oilwell Varco, is the world's leading manufacturer of offshore drilling packages, heavy-lift cranes and well-control equipment, headquartered in Houston, Texas, with corporate roots dating to 1862. The company employs about 30,000 people, manufactures in its own plants in the United States, Norway, Denmark and China, and reported FY2025 revenue of USD 8.74 billion with free cash flow of USD 876 million. VerityRank Score: 88/100.

Corporate Profile

NOV equips a large share of the world's offshore drilling fleet. Its drilling packages, compensation systems and jack-up elevating gear are installed on platforms and rigs across every major basin, creating a vast installed base that generates aftermarket parts and service revenue for decades after each sale. Manufacturing is fully in-house across four continents: Houston for complex machining and assembly, Kristiansand for subsea and flexible-pipe products, Kalundborg for drilling machinery, and Nantong, China, for volume fabrication - a distributed footprint that provides tariff and logistics flexibility unmatched by single-site competitors.

Financial discipline has been the hallmark of the modern NOV: in 2025 it converted more than 85 percent of EBITDA into free cash flow for the second consecutive year, reaching USD 876 million of free cash flow, while growing its share of the wind-turbine installation vessel (WTIV) heavy-crane market and continuing to win flexible-pipe and well-control orders for deepwater tiebacks.

Competitive Advantages

• Installed base on the majority of global offshore rigs creates durable aftermarket annuities.
• Four-continent factory network provides cost, tariff and logistics flexibility.
• Industry-leading cash conversion: EBITDA-to-FCF above 85% for two straight years.
• WTIV heavy-crane franchise captures offshore wind installation growth.
• Full in-house BOP, flexible-pipe and jack-up gear manufacturing raises barriers to entry.

Risks & Outlook

NOV's top line remains tightly coupled to offshore drilling capital expenditure: a downturn in rig construction would reduce equipment sales and aftermarket demand simultaneously. Its leaner asset base, while improving cash efficiency, limits margin capture in a strong upcycle, and 2026 Q1 saw delivery delays to Middle East and Asian yards due to Red Sea disruptions and elevated logistics costs.

The medium-term outlook is favourable. Offshore drilling fundamentals are improving, the WTIV crane franchise is scaling with the wind build-out, and disciplined capital allocation continues to return cash to shareholders. Barring a sharp oil-price shock, NOV is positioned for steady revenue growth with record free cash generation through 2026-2027.

NOV's strength is best illustrated by scale of installed base: its elevating systems, drawworks and mud pumps operate on the majority of active offshore rigs worldwide, and its aftermarket parts and services segment - roughly half of total revenue - provides a visible, recurring cash stream that supports the company's capital-return programme even in years when new equipment orders slow. In offshore wind, NOV has adapted its crane and motion-compensation technologies to the heaviest wind-turbine installation demands, and its WTIV crane franchise has won orders for several of the largest wind installation vessels under construction, extending the equipment annuity into the renewable-energy marine segment. Meanwhile its flexible-pipe and well-control product lines serve the expanding subsea tieback market, where deepwater operators need high-integrity pipe and BOP solutions for longer, hotter and higher-pressure wells.
Management's disciplined capital allocation - including debt reduction and shareholder returns - is supported by the 2025 free cash flow of USD 876 million and a leaner asset base that converts EBITDA to cash at better than 85 percent. With offshore drilling utilisation near cyclical highs and wind installation demand accelerating, NOV expects its three segments to grow together entering 2027.