Baker Hughes (NASDAQ:BKR) Price Target Cut to $71.00 by Analysts at Piper Sandler

Baker Hughes (NASDAQ:BKR) had its target price reduced by Piper Sandler from $72.00 to $71.00 in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Piper Sandler currently has an overweight rating on the stock.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Baker Hughes from $63.00 to $74.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Baker Hughes from $69.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Baker Hughes from $68.00 to $71.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Susquehanna reduced their price objective on shares of Baker Hughes from $80.00 to $70.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $74.00 price objective (up from $62.00) on shares of Baker Hughes in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Eighteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Baker Hughes currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $70.09.

Baker Hughes Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ BKR opened at $57.78 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 2.13 and a quick ratio of 1.77. The company has a market cap of $57.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.96. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $61.34 and its two-hundred day moving average is $59.39. Baker Hughes has a 1-year low of $38.37 and a 1-year high of $70.41.

Baker Hughes (NASDAQ:BKR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 23rd. The company reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.09. Baker Hughes had a return on equity of 14.17% and a net margin of 11.17%.The business had revenue of $6.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.71 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.51 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Baker Hughes will post 2.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Baker Hughes Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 5th were given a $0.23 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 5th. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.6%. Baker Hughes’s payout ratio is 29.39%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Baker Hughes news, CEO Lorenzo Simonelli sold 181,411 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.43, for a total value of $10,599,844.73. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 703,444 shares in the company, valued at $41,102,232.92. This represents a 20.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CAO Rebecca L. Charlton sold 5,088 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.22, for a total value of $326,751.36. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 15,997 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,027,327.34. The trade was a 24.13% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last three months, insiders sold 367,910 shares of company stock valued at $22,420,797. 0.19% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BKR. Pinion Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Baker Hughes during the fourth quarter worth about $778,000. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its position in Baker Hughes by 12.7% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,755,743 shares of the company’s stock worth $125,813,000 after buying an additional 309,996 shares during the period. USA Financial Formulas purchased a new position in Baker Hughes in the fourth quarter valued at about $830,000. OP Asset Management Ltd purchased a new position in Baker Hughes in the first quarter valued at about $6,049,000. Finally, Ninety One UK Ltd lifted its position in shares of Baker Hughes by 28.6% during the 4th quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 469,329 shares of the company’s stock valued at $21,373,000 after acquiring an additional 104,428 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.06% of the company’s stock.

Baker Hughes Company Profile

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.