Weatherford International (NASDAQ:WFRD) Upgraded 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 report released on Tuesday.

Several other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Weatherford International from $83.00 to $107.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. Zacks Research upgraded Weatherford International from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 16th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Weatherford International from $82.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Royal Bank Of Canada began coverage on shares of Weatherford International in a research note on Wednesday, March 18th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $105.00 price target for the company. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Weatherford International from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $98.33.

Weatherford International Stock Performance

NASDAQ:WFRD opened at $95.94 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $95.49 and a two-hundred day moving average of $80.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 2.19 and a quick ratio of 1.65. The stock has a market cap of $6.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.18 and a beta of 0.78. Weatherford International has a 1-year low of $36.74 and a 1-year high of $110.57.

Weatherford International (NASDAQ:WFRD) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 3rd. The company reported $1.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.42 by $0.49. The business had revenue of $1.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.26 billion. Weatherford International had a return on equity of 28.07% and a net margin of 8.76%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.50 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Weatherford International will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Weatherford International Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 5th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 6th were issued a dividend of $0.275 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 6th. This represents a $1.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.1%. This is a boost from Weatherford International’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. Weatherford International’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 18.55%.

Insider Activity at Weatherford International

In other news, CEO Girish Saligram sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.50, for a total value of $10,550,000.00. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 2.09% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Weatherford International

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Holocene Advisors LP increased its stake in Weatherford International by 712.8% during the second 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 during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Weatherford International by 1,040.4% in the 4th 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. lifted its position in shares of Weatherford International by 1,005.3% in the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 1,056,407 shares of the company’s stock worth $53,148,000 after buying an additional 960,832 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Weatherford International in the 2nd quarter valued at about $41,542,000. Finally, Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Weatherford International by 1,096.6% in the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 855,752 shares of the company’s stock valued at $66,971,000 after buying an additional 784,237 shares during the period. 97.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.