Baker Hughes (NASDAQ:BKR) Shares Down 6.1% – Time to Sell?

Baker Hughes Company (NASDAQ:BKR) shares fell 6.1% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $62.78 and last traded at $62.6910. 1,117,171 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 88% from the average session volume of 9,271,461 shares. The stock had previously closed at $66.73.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on BKR. Argus upped their target price on Baker Hughes from $67.00 to $79.00 in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Susquehanna upped their price target on Baker Hughes from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Zacks Research lowered Baker Hughes from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 28th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Baker Hughes from $63.00 to $74.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Finally, Capital One Financial upped their price target on Baker Hughes from $66.00 to $71.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. Eighteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $69.41.

Baker Hughes Stock Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $64.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.69, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.97. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $63.56 and a 200 day moving average of $56.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a current ratio of 2.13.

Baker Hughes (NASDAQ:BKR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 23rd. The company reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $6.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.71 billion. Baker Hughes had a return on equity of 14.17% and a net margin of 11.17%.The firm’s revenue was up 2.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.51 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Baker Hughes Company will post 2.31 EPS for the current year.

Baker Hughes Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 5th were paid a dividend of $0.23 per share. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 5th. Baker Hughes’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.39%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Lorenzo Simonelli sold 272,594 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.79, for a total transaction of $16,025,801.26. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 866,444 shares in the company, valued at $50,938,242.76. This represents a 23.93% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Maria Georgia Magno sold 5,063 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.04, for a total value of $298,919.52. Following the transaction, the insider owned 15,555 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $918,367.20. The trade was a 24.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 550,250 shares of company stock valued at $32,988,331. 0.19% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Bleakley Financial Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Baker Hughes by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 25,485 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,556,000 after buying an additional 163 shares during the period. Resolute Wealth Strategies LLC grew its stake in shares of Baker Hughes by 2.7% in the 1st quarter. Resolute Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 6,597 shares of the company’s stock valued at $403,000 after buying an additional 172 shares during the period. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators grew its stake in shares of Baker Hughes by 10.5% in the 4th quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators now owns 1,884 shares of the company’s stock valued at $86,000 after buying an additional 179 shares during the period. Krilogy Financial LLC grew its stake in shares of Baker Hughes by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Krilogy Financial LLC now owns 5,722 shares of the company’s stock valued at $261,000 after buying an additional 180 shares during the period. Finally, 3Chopt Investment Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Baker Hughes by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. 3Chopt Investment Partners LLC now owns 42,679 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,944,000 after buying an additional 203 shares during the period. 92.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.