Weatherford International (NASDAQ:WFRD) Rating Increased to Strong-Buy at Wall Street Zen

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

WFRD has been the topic of several other reports. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Weatherford International from $82.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Weatherford International from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 18th. Barclays decreased their price target on Weatherford International from $111.00 to $109.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 23rd. Zacks Research cut Weatherford International from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 14th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Weatherford International in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $93.25.

Weatherford International Stock Performance

Shares of Weatherford International stock opened at $101.42 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $7.27 billion, a PE ratio of 17.10 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a quick ratio of 1.65, a current ratio of 2.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86. Weatherford International has a 52 week low of $36.74 and a 52 week high of $106.41. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $87.06 and its 200-day simple moving average is $73.41.

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

Weatherford International Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 5th. Investors of record on Friday, February 6th will be issued a $0.275 dividend. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.1%. This is a boost from Weatherford International’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 6th. Weatherford International’s dividend payout ratio is currently 18.55%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Girish Saligram sold 100,000 shares of Weatherford International 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Kristin Ruzicka sold 2,129 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.25, for a total value of $164,465.25. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 15,673 shares in the company, valued at $1,210,739.25. This represents a 11.96% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 1.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Weatherford International

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Holocene Advisors LP grew its position in Weatherford International by 712.8% during the 2nd quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 1,646,034 shares of the company’s stock worth $82,812,000 after purchasing an additional 1,443,512 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Weatherford International by 1,040.4% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,244,464 shares of the company’s stock worth $97,392,000 after buying an additional 1,135,338 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. increased its position in Weatherford International by 1,005.3% in the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 1,056,407 shares of the company’s stock valued at $53,148,000 after acquiring an additional 960,832 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Weatherford International during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $41,542,000. Finally, Millennium Management LLC raised its stake in Weatherford International by 154.3% during the 3rd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,159,192 shares of the company’s stock valued at $79,324,000 after acquiring an additional 703,401 shares during the last quarter. 97.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.