Weatherford International (NASDAQ:WFRD) Upgraded by Wall Street Zen to Strong-Buy Rating

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Weatherford International (NASDAQ:WFRD) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note published on Tuesday.

WFRD has been the subject of several other research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada assumed coverage on shares of Weatherford International in a research note on Wednesday, March 18th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $105.00 price objective for the company. Zacks Research raised shares of Weatherford International from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 16th. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Weatherford International from $111.00 to $109.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 23rd. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Weatherford International in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on Weatherford International from $93.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $98.33.

Weatherford International Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ WFRD opened at $93.22 on Tuesday. Weatherford International has a 1-year low of $36.74 and a 1-year high of $110.57. The company has a market cap of $6.69 billion, a PE ratio of 15.72 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 2.19 and a quick ratio of 1.65. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $95.05 and a 200 day moving average price of $80.49.

Weatherford International (NASDAQ:WFRD) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 3rd. The company reported $1.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.42 by $0.49. The business had revenue of $1.29 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.26 billion. Weatherford International had a net margin of 8.76% and a return on equity of 28.07%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 3.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.50 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Weatherford International will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

Weatherford International Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 5th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 6th were given a dividend of $0.275 per share. This represents a $1.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.2%. This is a boost from Weatherford International’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 6th. Weatherford International’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 18.55%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Girish Saligram sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.50, for a total transaction of $10,550,000.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 1.60% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Weatherford International

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in WFRD. Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in Weatherford International by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 5,673,603 shares of the company’s stock valued at $388,245,000 after purchasing an additional 98,663 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in shares of Weatherford International by 5.8% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,156,773 shares of the company’s stock worth $403,571,000 after purchasing an additional 281,984 shares in the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Weatherford International by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,928,226 shares of the company’s stock worth $150,903,000 after purchasing an additional 66,553 shares in the last quarter. Holocene Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Weatherford International by 712.8% in the second quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 1,646,034 shares of the company’s stock worth $82,812,000 after buying an additional 1,443,512 shares during the period. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Weatherford International by 43.5% in the third quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,572,422 shares of the company’s stock valued at $107,601,000 after buying an additional 476,575 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.23% of the company’s stock.

About Weatherford International

Weatherford International (NASDAQ: WFRD) is a global oilfield services company specializing in the development, design and manufacturing of equipment and technologies for oil and natural gas drilling, evaluation, completion and production. The company’s core offerings include well construction services such as directional drilling and wellbore positioning, well completion solutions that encompass sand control and zonal isolation technologies, and production enhancement services involving artificial lift systems and well intervention tools.

In addition to its comprehensive service lines, Weatherford provides a range of drilling optimization and reservoir evaluation products.