Weatherford International PLC (NASDAQ:WFRD) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Weatherford International PLC (NASDAQ:WFRD) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eleven research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, seven have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $99.5556.

Several research analysts recently issued reports on WFRD shares. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Weatherford International in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Weatherford International from $111.00 to $109.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 23rd. Zacks Research raised shares of Weatherford International from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 16th. UBS Group raised their target price on Weatherford International from $94.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 31st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Weatherford International from $83.00 to $107.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th.

Insider Activity at Weatherford International

In other news, CEO Girish Saligram sold 100,000 shares of the company’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 transaction of $10,550,000.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 2.09% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Weatherford International

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Weatherford International by 127.1% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 318 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 178 shares in the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Weatherford International in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Quent Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Weatherford International during the third quarter valued at about $26,000. Leonteq Securities AG bought a new stake in shares of Weatherford International during the fourth quarter worth about $39,000. Finally, Sound Income Strategies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Weatherford International during the third quarter worth about $35,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.23% of the company’s stock.

Weatherford International Stock Performance

Shares of WFRD stock opened at $95.29 on Friday. Weatherford International has a fifty-two week low of $36.74 and a fifty-two week high of $110.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 1.65 and a current ratio of 2.19. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $96.49 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $82.18. The company has a market cap of $6.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.07 and a beta of 0.83.

Weatherford International (NASDAQ:WFRD) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 3rd. The company reported $1.91 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.42 by $0.49. The company had revenue of $1.29 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.26 billion. Weatherford International had a net margin of 8.76% and a return on equity of 28.07%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 3.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.50 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Weatherford International will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Weatherford International Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 5th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 6th were paid a $0.275 dividend. This represents a $1.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.2%. This is a boost from Weatherford International’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 6th. Weatherford International’s payout ratio is 18.55%.

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.