Baker Hughes Company $BKR Shares Sold by Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co

Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co reduced its stake in shares of Baker Hughes Company (NASDAQ:BKR) by 16.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 248,729 shares of the company’s stock after selling 49,100 shares during the period. Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co’s holdings in Baker Hughes were worth $11,327,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Truist Financial Corp lifted its stake in shares of Baker Hughes by 5.3% during the fourth quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 400,006 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,216,000 after buying an additional 20,034 shares during the period. Intact Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Baker Hughes by 10.2% during the fourth quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 113,400 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,164,000 after buying an additional 10,500 shares during the period. Souders Financial Advisors lifted its stake in shares of Baker Hughes by 15.4% during the fourth quarter. Souders Financial Advisors now owns 4,895 shares of the company’s stock worth $223,000 after buying an additional 653 shares during the period. Benjamin Edwards Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Baker Hughes by 7.9% during the fourth quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 13,116 shares of the company’s stock worth $597,000 after buying an additional 961 shares during the period. Finally, Composition Wealth LLC lifted its stake in shares of Baker Hughes by 10.5% during the fourth quarter. Composition Wealth LLC now owns 8,559 shares of the company’s stock worth $390,000 after buying an additional 813 shares during the period. 92.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Baker Hughes from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Zephirin Group lifted their price objective on shares of Baker Hughes from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 26th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Baker Hughes from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 28th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Baker Hughes from $63.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Baker Hughes in a report on Friday, April 24th. Nineteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $68.64.

Baker Hughes Trading Down 1.8%

Shares of Baker Hughes stock opened at $67.78 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 2.13 and a quick ratio of 1.77. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $62.03 and a 200 day moving average price of $54.59. Baker Hughes Company has a 1 year low of $35.83 and a 1 year high of $70.41. The stock has a market cap of $67.24 billion, a PE ratio of 21.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 0.97.

Baker Hughes (NASDAQ:BKR) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The company reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.09. Baker Hughes had a net margin of 11.17% and a return on equity of 14.17%. The firm had revenue of $6.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.71 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.51 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Baker Hughes Company will post 2.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Baker Hughes Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 5th will be issued a $0.23 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 5th. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.4%. Baker Hughes’s payout ratio is presently 29.39%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Baker Hughes news, CEO Lorenzo Simonelli sold 272,594 shares of Baker Hughes stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.79, for a total value of $16,025,801.26. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 866,444 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,938,242.76. The trade was a 23.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Maria Georgia Magno sold 19,150 shares of Baker Hughes stock in a transaction on Monday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.11, for a total transaction of $1,131,956.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 14,588 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $862,296.68. The trade was a 56.76% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 569,400 shares of company stock valued at $34,120,287 in the last ninety days. 0.19% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.