Credit Suisse Reiterates Its Overweight Rating on Noble Corp. (NE)

Credit Suisse is reiterating its Overweight rating on Noble Corp. NE following January's fleet status report. In its note to clients, Credit Suisse writes, "NE's January fleet status report was admittedly worse than expected reflecting permit challenges in the GoM, sharp declines in Mexican jackup utilization, and a large increase in downtime expectations. We lower our 2010 and 2011 EPS estimates to $2.97/$2.30 from $3.00/$3.53. Meanwhile, our 2012 EPS estimates increases to $4.33 from $4.21 to reflect lower operating cost expectations from stacked rigs. Our DCF based target price moves to $44 from $43 to include the impact of the company's recent jackup newbuilds and newbuild drillship with Shell, partially offset by lower near-term forecasts." NE closed yesterday at $38.07, down 0.05% from Friday's close.