Baker Hughes (NASDAQ:BKR) Upgraded to “Hold” at Zacks Research

Zacks Research upgraded shares of Baker Hughes (NASDAQ:BKR) from a strong sell rating to a hold rating in a research report sent to investors on Monday morning,Zacks.com reports.

Other equities analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Baker Hughes from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. Barclays reissued an “equal weight” rating and issued a $74.00 target price (up from $62.00) on shares of Baker Hughes in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Susquehanna boosted their price target on shares of Baker Hughes from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of Baker Hughes from $80.00 to $74.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, HSBC boosted their price target on shares of Baker Hughes from $67.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Eighteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Baker Hughes currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $69.14.

Baker Hughes Price Performance

BKR stock opened at $61.52 on Monday. Baker Hughes has a one year low of $37.38 and a one year high of $70.41. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $64.18 and its 200-day moving average price is $58.12. 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 company has a market capitalization of $61.03 billion, a PE ratio of 19.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.93.

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

Baker Hughes Dividend Announcement

The firm 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. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.5%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 5th. Baker Hughes’s payout ratio is currently 29.39%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Baker Hughes

In related news, CEO Lorenzo Simonelli sold 181,411 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.36, for a total value of $11,494,200.96. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 784,944 shares in the company, valued at approximately $49,734,051.84. The trade was a 18.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through 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 business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.22, for a total transaction of $326,751.36. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 15,997 shares in the company, valued at $1,027,327.34. This represents a 24.13% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Rathbones Group PLC increased its position in Baker Hughes by 99.2% during the first quarter. Rathbones Group PLC now owns 17,969 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,097,000 after acquiring an additional 8,950 shares during the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC increased its position in Baker Hughes by 15.2% during the first quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 13,421 shares of the company’s stock valued at $819,000 after acquiring an additional 1,772 shares during the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its position in Baker Hughes by 54.9% during the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 59,390 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,626,000 after acquiring an additional 21,047 shares during the last quarter. Groupama Asset Managment increased its position in Baker Hughes by 0.6% during the first quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 1,932,305 shares of the company’s stock valued at $117,967,000 after acquiring an additional 11,297 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC bought a new position in Baker Hughes during the first quarter valued at $356,000. Institutional investors own 92.06% of the company’s stock.

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.