Weatherford International PLC $WFRD Shares Sold by Legal & General Group Plc

Legal & General Group Plc decreased its holdings in Weatherford International PLC (NASDAQ:WFRD) by 29.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 115,800 shares of the company’s stock after selling 48,952 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned about 0.16% of Weatherford International worth $9,060,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WFRD. Royal Bank of Canada raised its stake in Weatherford International by 223.0% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 122,662 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,568,000 after buying an additional 84,684 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Weatherford International by 129.3% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 143,703 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,695,000 after acquiring an additional 81,046 shares in the last quarter. United Services Automobile Association purchased a new stake in shares of Weatherford International during the first quarter worth about $258,000. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its holdings in shares of Weatherford International by 26.8% during the second quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 12,764 shares of the company’s stock valued at $642,000 after acquiring an additional 2,695 shares in the last quarter. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Weatherford International by 83.5% during the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 556 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 253 shares in the last quarter. 97.23% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WFRD has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Weatherford International from $105.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Weatherford International from $111.00 to $156.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Weatherford International from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Weatherford International from $134.00 to $137.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded Weatherford International from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 14th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $110.67.

Weatherford International Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:WFRD opened at $103.73 on Friday. Weatherford International PLC has a twelve month low of $46.20 and a twelve month high of $113.15. The company has a current ratio of 2.31, a quick ratio of 1.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83. The company has a market cap of $7.46 billion, a PE ratio of 16.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.93 and a beta of 0.82. The company’s 50 day moving average is $103.39 and its 200 day moving average is $93.11.

Weatherford International (NASDAQ:WFRD) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 21st. The company reported $1.49 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.02 by $0.47. The business had revenue of $1.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.14 billion. Weatherford International had a net margin of 9.49% and a return on equity of 28.31%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.03 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Weatherford International PLC will post 6.13 EPS for the current year.

Weatherford International Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 4th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 6th were given a dividend of $0.275 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 6th. This represents a $1.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.1%. Weatherford International’s payout ratio is currently 17.21%.

Weatherford International Company Profile

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.