Commonwealth Equity Services LLC Decreases Stock Position in Weatherford International PLC $WFRD

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC lessened its position in Weatherford International PLC (NASDAQ:WFRD) by 35.6% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 38,103 shares of the company’s stock after selling 21,069 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC’s holdings in Weatherford International were worth $2,982,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Holocene Advisors LP lifted its position in Weatherford International by 712.8% during the second quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 1,646,034 shares of the company’s stock worth $82,812,000 after buying an additional 1,443,512 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in Weatherford International by 1,040.4% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,244,464 shares of the company’s stock worth $97,392,000 after buying an additional 1,135,338 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Weatherford International during the fourth quarter worth approximately $61,399,000. Millennium Management LLC lifted its position in Weatherford International by 154.3% during the third quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,159,192 shares of the company’s stock worth $79,324,000 after buying an additional 703,401 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Balyasny Asset Management L.P. lifted its position in Weatherford International by 1,084.6% during the second quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 686,010 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,513,000 after buying an additional 628,100 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.23% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WFRD has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Royal Bank Of Canada initiated coverage on Weatherford International in a research report on Wednesday, March 18th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $105.00 price objective on the stock. Wall Street Zen upgraded Weatherford International from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 30th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Weatherford International from $105.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Weatherford International from $134.00 to $137.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Weatherford International from $83.00 to $107.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Weatherford International presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $110.67.

Weatherford International Price Performance

WFRD stock opened at $101.26 on Wednesday. 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 company has a market capitalization of $7.28 billion, a PE ratio of 15.85, a P/E/G ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 0.82. Weatherford International PLC has a 12-month low of $46.20 and a 12-month high of $113.15. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $103.64 and its 200 day moving average price is $93.72.

Weatherford International (NASDAQ:WFRD) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 21st. The company reported $1.49 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.02 by $0.47. Weatherford International had a return on equity of 28.31% and a net margin of 9.49%.The firm had revenue of $1.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.14 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.03 EPS. Weatherford International’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Weatherford International PLC will post 6.13 EPS for the current year.

Weatherford International Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 4th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 6th were paid a dividend of $0.275 per share. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 6th. Weatherford International’s payout ratio is presently 17.21%.

Weatherford International Company Profile

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.