Investors Purchase High Volume of Put Options on Baker Hughes (NASDAQ:BKR)

Baker Hughes (NASDAQ:BKR) saw unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Investors purchased 9,714 put options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 295% compared to the average daily volume of 2,458 put options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Lorenzo Simonelli sold 114,286 shares of Baker Hughes stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.00, for a total transaction of $4,000,010.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 502,053 shares in the company, valued at $17,571,855. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.25% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Baker Hughes

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of BKR. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Baker Hughes during the fourth quarter valued at about $551,555,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of Baker Hughes by 32.0% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 17,364,995 shares of the company’s stock valued at $581,729,000 after acquiring an additional 4,207,973 shares during the period. Cardano Risk Management B.V. bought a new position in shares of Baker Hughes during the first quarter valued at $117,083,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Baker Hughes by 47.8% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,635,875 shares of the company’s stock valued at $192,634,000 after buying an additional 1,822,487 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Baker Hughes by 19.2% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,669,307 shares of the company’s stock worth $296,319,000 after purchasing an additional 1,395,083 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price target on shares of Baker Hughes in a research report on Friday, July 26th. TD Cowen lifted their price target on shares of Baker Hughes from $46.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of Baker Hughes from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Bank of America reduced their price target on shares of Baker Hughes from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 15th. Finally, Susquehanna lifted their price target on shares of Baker Hughes from $40.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $43.38.

Baker Hughes Stock Up 0.2 %

Baker Hughes stock opened at $34.06 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $35.24 and a 200-day simple moving average of $33.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $33.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.03, a P/E/G ratio of 0.57 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 1.27. Baker Hughes has a one year low of $28.32 and a one year high of $39.05.

Baker Hughes (NASDAQ:BKR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The company reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $7.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.81 billion. Baker Hughes had a net margin of 7.37% and a return on equity of 12.45%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.39 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Baker Hughes will post 2.24 earnings per share for the current year.

Baker Hughes Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 16th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 6th were given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 6th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.47%. Baker Hughes’s dividend payout ratio is presently 46.93%.

About Baker Hughes

Baker Hughes Company provides a portfolio of technologies and services to energy and industrial value chain worldwide. The company operates through Oilfield Services & Equipment (OFSE) and Industrial & Energy Technology (IET) segments. The OFSE segment designs and manufactures products and provides related services, including exploration, appraisal, development, production, rejuvenation, and decommissioning for onshore and offshore oilfield operations.