Weatherford International (NASDAQ:WFRD) Hits New 12-Month High – Time to Buy?

Weatherford International PLC (NASDAQ:WFRD)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $112.70 and last traded at $112.27, with a volume of 232953 shares. The stock had previously closed at $108.83.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on WFRD shares. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Weatherford International from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday. Zacks Research lowered Weatherford International from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 14th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Weatherford International from $105.00 to $113.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Weatherford International from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Friday, April 24th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of Weatherford International from $111.00 to $156.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Weatherford International currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $110.33.

Weatherford International Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $7.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.87. 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 business’s fifty day simple moving average is $98.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $89.78.

Weatherford International (NASDAQ:WFRD) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 21st. The company reported $1.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.02 by $0.47. Weatherford International had a net margin of 9.49% and a return on equity of 28.31%. The business had revenue of $1.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.14 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.03 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Weatherford International PLC will post 6.07 earnings per share for the current year.

Weatherford International Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 4th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 6th will be paid a dividend of $0.275 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 6th. This represents a $1.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. Weatherford International’s payout ratio is presently 17.21%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Weatherford International

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of WFRD. Holocene Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Weatherford International by 712.8% during the 2nd quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 1,646,034 shares of the company’s stock valued at $82,812,000 after purchasing an additional 1,443,512 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Weatherford International by 1,040.4% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,244,464 shares of the company’s stock valued at $97,392,000 after purchasing an additional 1,135,338 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Weatherford International during the 4th quarter valued at about $61,399,000. Barclays PLC lifted its position in Weatherford International by 1,096.6% during the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 855,752 shares of the company’s stock valued at $66,971,000 after acquiring an additional 784,237 shares during the period. Finally, Millennium Management LLC lifted its position 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 period. 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.