Weatherford International (NASDAQ:WFRD) Research Coverage Started at Piper Sandler

Piper Sandler assumed coverage on shares of Weatherford International (NASDAQ:WFRD) in a research note issued to investors on Thursday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage issued a neutral rating and a $87.00 price target on the stock.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on WFRD. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Weatherford International from $147.00 to $105.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on shares of Weatherford International from $149.00 to $142.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of Weatherford International from $145.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded Weatherford International from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $132.00 to $98.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 price target on shares of Weatherford International in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $121.25.

Weatherford International Trading Down 2.1 %

WFRD opened at $67.10 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $81.97 and a 200 day simple moving average of $98.92. Weatherford International has a fifty-two week low of $66.23 and a fifty-two week high of $135.00. The company has a market cap of $4.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 2.04 and a quick ratio of 1.49.

Weatherford International (NASDAQ:WFRD) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The company reported $2.06 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.65 by $0.41. The company had revenue of $1.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.42 billion. Weatherford International had a net margin of 9.65% and a return on equity of 46.25%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.66 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Weatherford International will post 6.85 earnings per share for the current year.

Weatherford International Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 5th. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 6th were issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 6th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.49%. Weatherford International’s dividend payout ratio is presently 14.04%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Weatherford International news, CAO Desmond J. Mills sold 6,531 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.86, for a total value of $521,565.66. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 11,680 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $932,764.80. The trade was a 35.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 1.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Weatherford International

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of WFRD. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Weatherford International by 36.7% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,573,003 shares of the company’s stock worth $303,419,000 after purchasing an additional 959,783 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Weatherford International by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,267,484 shares of the company’s stock valued at $192,555,000 after buying an additional 68,553 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Weatherford International by 551.1% during the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,440,837 shares of the company’s stock valued at $122,356,000 after buying an additional 1,219,553 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Weatherford International by 30.6% in the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,324,101 shares of the company’s stock worth $112,443,000 after buying an additional 310,259 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its position in shares of Weatherford International by 6.2% in the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 657,953 shares of the company’s stock valued at $80,566,000 after acquiring an additional 38,700 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 97.23% of the company’s stock.

About Weatherford International

Weatherford International plc, an energy services company, provides equipment and services for the drilling, evaluation, completion, production, and intervention of oil, geothermal, and natural gas wells worldwide. The company operates through three segments: Drilling and Evaluation; Well Construction and Completions; and Production and Intervention.