Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC Invests $571,000 in Weatherford International PLC $WFRD

Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Weatherford International PLC (NASDAQ:WFRD) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 7,293 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $571,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Leonteq Securities AG acquired a new stake in Weatherford International during the fourth quarter worth about $39,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Weatherford International by 83.5% during the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 556 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 253 shares during the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its position in Weatherford International by 69.8% during the second quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 584 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 240 shares during the last quarter. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd acquired a new stake in Weatherford International during the third quarter worth about $41,000. Finally, Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its position in Weatherford International by 157.3% during the fourth quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 705 shares of the company’s stock worth $55,000 after purchasing an additional 431 shares during the last quarter. 97.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on WFRD shares. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Weatherford International from $83.00 to $107.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Weatherford International from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Weatherford International from $105.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. Zacks Research downgraded Weatherford International from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 14th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on Weatherford International from $111.00 to $156.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Seven 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, Weatherford International currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $110.33.

Weatherford International Price Performance

Weatherford International stock opened at $103.64 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $102.28 and its 200-day simple moving average is $92.13. The company has a market capitalization of $7.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.93 and a beta of 0.87. Weatherford International PLC has a 1 year low of $42.75 and a 1 year high of $113.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 1.73 and a current ratio of 2.31.

Weatherford International (NASDAQ:WFRD) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 21st. The company reported $1.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.02 by $0.47. The business had revenue of $1.15 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.14 billion. Weatherford International had a net margin of 9.49% and a return on equity of 28.31%. The business’s revenue was down 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.03 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Weatherford International PLC will post 6.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Weatherford International Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 4th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 6th will be paid a $0.275 dividend. This represents a $1.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 6th. Weatherford International’s payout ratio is 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.