Van ECK Associates Corp Trims Stake in Baker Hughes Company $BKR

Van ECK Associates Corp cut its stake in shares of Baker Hughes Company (NASDAQ:BKR) by 21.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,918,813 shares of the company’s stock after selling 812,122 shares during the quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp’s holdings in Baker Hughes were worth $142,205,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in BKR. Woodline Partners LP boosted its position in shares of Baker Hughes by 40.8% in the first quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 83,650 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,676,000 after purchasing an additional 24,225 shares during the period. Focus Partners Wealth raised its position in Baker Hughes by 5.6% in the 1st quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 18,481 shares of the company’s stock worth $812,000 after purchasing an additional 986 shares during the period. Prospera Financial Services Inc grew its holdings in shares of Baker Hughes by 30.6% in the second quarter. Prospera Financial Services Inc now owns 13,598 shares of the company’s stock worth $521,000 after purchasing an additional 3,186 shares during the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Baker Hughes by 5.2% in the 2nd quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 1,556,124 shares of the company’s stock worth $59,662,000 after buying an additional 76,564 shares during the period. Finally, Allworth Financial LP boosted its stake in shares of Baker Hughes by 4,343.5% during the second quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 206,180 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,905,000 after purchasing an additional 201,540 shares in the last quarter. 92.06% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Baker Hughes from $52.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $68.00 price objective on shares of Baker Hughes in a research note on Wednesday, February 11th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on Baker Hughes from $59.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, January 31st. Citigroup raised their price target on Baker Hughes from $61.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. Finally, Johnson Rice began coverage on shares of Baker Hughes in a research note on Wednesday, February 25th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $68.00 price target for the company. Twenty equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $59.61.

Baker Hughes Price Performance

Baker Hughes stock opened at $59.34 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a current ratio of 1.36. The business has a fifty day moving average of $56.69 and a two-hundred day moving average of $50.59. Baker Hughes Company has a one year low of $33.60 and a one year high of $67.00. The company has a market cap of $58.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 0.83.

Baker Hughes (NASDAQ:BKR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 26th. The company reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.67 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $7.39 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.09 billion. Baker Hughes had a return on equity of 14.26% and a net margin of 9.33%.Baker Hughes’s revenue was up .3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.70 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Baker Hughes Company will post 2.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Baker Hughes Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 27th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 17th were given a $0.23 dividend. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 17th. Baker Hughes’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 35.38%.

Insider Transactions at Baker Hughes

In other Baker Hughes news, CEO Lorenzo Simonelli sold 272,593 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.13, for a total transaction of $16,663,610.09. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 672,810 shares in the company, valued at $41,128,875.30. This trade represents a 28.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Rebecca L. Charlton sold 1,985 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.77, for a total value of $110,703.45. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 12,052 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $672,140.04. The trade was a 14.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 312,594 shares of company stock valued at $18,986,302 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.27% of the company’s stock.

About Baker Hughes

Baker Hughes is an energy technology company that provides a broad portfolio of products, services and digital solutions for the oil and gas and industrial markets. Its offerings span oilfield services and equipment — including drilling, evaluation, completion and production technologies — as well as turbomachinery, compressors and related process equipment used in midstream and downstream operations. The company also supplies aftermarket services, field support and integrated solutions designed to improve asset performance and uptime across the energy value chain.

The firm’s roots trace back to the merger of Baker International and Hughes Tool Company, and more recently it combined with GE’s oil and gas business in 2017 to form Baker Hughes, a GE company (BHGE); subsequent changes in ownership restored Baker Hughes as an independent publicly traded company.