Bank of America Corp DE Sells 217,983 Shares of Weatherford International plc (NASDAQ:WFRD)

Bank of America Corp DE cut its stake in Weatherford International plc (NASDAQ:WFRD) by 34.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 410,650 shares of the company’s stock after selling 217,983 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE owned about 0.57% of Weatherford International worth $29,415,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in WFRD. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in shares of Weatherford International by 59.4% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 31,349 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,663,000 after purchasing an additional 11,680 shares during the last quarter. Viking Fund Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Weatherford International by 23.8% in the fourth quarter. Viking Fund Management LLC now owns 26,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,862,000 after purchasing an additional 5,000 shares during the last quarter. Gradient Investments LLC grew its holdings in shares of Weatherford International by 7.3% in the fourth quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 15,852 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,135,000 after purchasing an additional 1,078 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV grew its holdings in shares of Weatherford International by 56.7% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 3,048 shares of the company’s stock worth $218,000 after purchasing an additional 1,103 shares during the last quarter. Finally, R Squared Ltd purchased a new stake in Weatherford International in the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. 97.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on WFRD shares. Raymond James lowered shares of Weatherford International from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $73.00 to $69.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Weatherford International from $90.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, May 13th. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on shares of Weatherford International from $80.00 to $62.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Benchmark lowered their price objective on shares of Weatherford International from $140.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Weatherford International from $85.00 to $77.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $96.63.

Weatherford International Stock Performance

WFRD stock opened at $48.48 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $3.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.21, a PEG ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 0.73. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $47.22 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $63.78. Weatherford International plc has a one year low of $36.74 and a one year high of $135.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 1.49 and a current ratio of 2.01.

Weatherford International (NASDAQ:WFRD) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The company reported $1.03 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $1.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.21 billion. Weatherford International had a net margin of 9.18% and a return on equity of 40.65%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Weatherford International plc will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Weatherford International Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 5th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 6th will be given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.06%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 6th. Weatherford International’s payout ratio is 16.00%.

Insider Activity at Weatherford International

In related news, Director Neal P. Goldman acquired 12,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 24th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $42.04 per share, with a total value of $504,480.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 25,311 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,064,074.44. This trade represents a 90.15% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 2.09% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About Weatherford International

Weatherford International plc, an energy services company, provides equipment and services for the drilling, evaluation, completion, production, and intervention of oil, geothermal, and natural gas wells worldwide. The company operates through three segments: Drilling and Evaluation; Well Construction and Completions; and Production and Intervention.