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

Shares of Baker Hughes Company (NASDAQ:BKR) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-one ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have issued a buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $70.6667.

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. TD Cowen raised their price target on Baker Hughes from $77.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Baker Hughes from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Monday, July 13th. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of Baker Hughes in a research note on Friday, August 7th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $70.00 price target for the company. Zacks Research raised Baker Hughes from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, June 15th. Finally, Susquehanna raised their price objective on Baker Hughes from $70.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 28th.

Baker Hughes Trading Up 1.5%

Shares of BKR opened at $64.63 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $64.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 2.09 and a quick ratio of 1.76. Baker Hughes has a 1 year low of $43.92 and a 1 year high of $70.41. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $59.61 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $61.53.

Baker Hughes (NASDAQ:BKR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Sunday, July 26th. The company reported $0.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by $0.13. Baker Hughes had a return on equity of 13.85% and a net margin of 11.17%.The business had revenue of $6.74 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.54 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.63 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Baker Hughes will post 2.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Baker Hughes Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 7th were issued a dividend of $0.23 per share. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 7th. Baker Hughes’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.68%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Baker Hughes

In other news, CEO Lorenzo Simonelli sold 181,411 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.43, for a total transaction of $10,599,844.73. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 703,444 shares in the company, valued at approximately $41,102,232.92. This trade represents a 20.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 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

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its position in Baker Hughes by 3,833.2% during the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 120,855,357 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,707,472,000 after acquiring an additional 117,782,673 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Baker Hughes by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 61,409,438 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,796,586,000 after purchasing an additional 937,614 shares during the last quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. boosted its position in shares of Baker Hughes by 1,005.1% in the 4th quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 49,353,310 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,247,550,000 after purchasing an additional 44,887,481 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Baker Hughes by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 26,213,363 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,189,194,000 after buying an additional 204,534 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in Baker Hughes during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,022,491,000. 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.