Cooke & Bieler LP Sells 85,301 Shares of Weatherford International PLC $WFRD

Cooke & Bieler LP cut its stake in Weatherford International PLC (NASDAQ:WFRD) by 28.1% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 218,549 shares of the company’s stock after selling 85,301 shares during the quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP’s holdings in Weatherford International were worth $17,104,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Capital Research Global Investors grew its holdings in Weatherford International by 1.8% during the third quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 5,673,603 shares of the company’s stock worth $388,245,000 after buying an additional 98,663 shares in the last quarter. Holocene Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Weatherford International by 712.8% during the 2nd quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 1,646,034 shares of the company’s stock worth $82,812,000 after acquiring an additional 1,443,512 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Weatherford International by 43.5% in the 3rd quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,572,422 shares of the company’s stock worth $107,601,000 after acquiring an additional 476,575 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Weatherford International by 4.6% in the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,301,573 shares of the company’s stock worth $89,068,000 after acquiring an additional 57,008 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Weatherford International by 103.1% in the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,165,753 shares of the company’s stock valued at $79,772,000 after purchasing an additional 591,694 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.23% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WFRD has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Weatherford International from $115.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Zacks Research downgraded Weatherford International from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on Weatherford International from $115.00 to $118.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. Barclays increased their price target on Weatherford International from $111.00 to $156.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut Weatherford International from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Friday, April 24th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $110.33.

Weatherford International Stock Performance

Weatherford International stock opened at $108.79 on Tuesday. Weatherford International PLC has a 1-year low of $42.75 and a 1-year high of $113.15. The company has a current ratio of 2.31, a quick ratio of 1.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.83 billion, a PE ratio of 17.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.87. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $100.75 and its 200 day simple moving average is $91.34.

Weatherford International (NASDAQ:WFRD) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 21st. The company reported $1.49 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.02 by $0.47. The firm had revenue of $1.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.14 billion. Weatherford International had a net margin of 9.49% and a return on equity of 28.31%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.03 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Weatherford International PLC will post 6.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Weatherford International Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 4th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 6th will be paid a $0.275 dividend. This represents a $1.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 6th. Weatherford International’s dividend payout ratio is currently 17.21%.

About Weatherford International

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.