Baker Hughes Company (NASDAQ:BKR) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Baker Hughes Company (NASDAQ:BKR) have been given an average rating of “Moderate Buy” by the twenty-two research firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have assigned a hold recommendation and eighteen have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $69.1364.

A number of research firms recently commented on BKR. Johnson Rice began coverage on Baker Hughes in a report on Wednesday, February 25th. They set a “buy” rating and a $68.00 target price for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Baker Hughes from $60.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Baker Hughes in a report on Friday, April 24th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Baker Hughes from $63.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Baker Hughes from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th.

Insider Activity at Baker Hughes

In other Baker Hughes news, CAO Rebecca L. Charlton sold 5,088 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.22, for a total value of $326,751.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 15,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,027,327.34. The trade was a 24.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 0.19% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Woodline Partners LP increased its holdings in Baker Hughes by 40.8% in the first quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 83,650 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,676,000 after buying an additional 24,225 shares in the last quarter. Focus Partners Wealth increased its holdings in Baker Hughes by 5.6% in the first quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 18,481 shares of the company’s stock valued at $812,000 after buying an additional 986 shares in the last quarter. Jump Financial LLC purchased a new position in Baker Hughes in the second quarter valued at $2,301,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Baker Hughes by 4.0% in the second quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 46,407 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,779,000 after buying an additional 1,768 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nebula Research & Development LLC purchased a new position in Baker Hughes in the second quarter valued at $1,014,000. 92.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Baker Hughes Price Performance

Shares of BKR stock opened at $63.14 on Monday. Baker Hughes has a fifty-two week low of $37.38 and a fifty-two week high of $70.41. The firm has a market capitalization of $62.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.17, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a current ratio of 2.13. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $64.12 and its 200-day simple moving average is $57.94.

Baker Hughes (NASDAQ:BKR) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The company reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.09. Baker Hughes had a return on equity of 14.17% and a net margin of 11.17%.The firm had revenue of $6.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.71 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.51 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Baker Hughes will post 2.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Baker Hughes Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 5th were issued a dividend of $0.23 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 5th. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.5%. Baker Hughes’s payout ratio is 29.39%.

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.