First Trust Advisors LP Grows Position in Baker Hughes Company $BKR

First Trust Advisors LP lifted its position in Baker Hughes Company (NASDAQ:BKR) by 4.0% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 9,663,737 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 374,974 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP’s holdings in Baker Hughes were worth $589,971,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Pinion Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Baker Hughes during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $778,000. OP Asset Management Ltd purchased a new stake in Baker Hughes in the first quarter worth $6,049,000. USA Financial Formulas bought a new stake in Baker Hughes in the fourth quarter valued at $830,000. Ninety One UK Ltd boosted its holdings in Baker Hughes by 28.6% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its position in Baker Hughes by 17.7% during the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 484,310 shares of the company’s stock valued at $22,055,000 after purchasing an additional 72,714 shares during the period. 92.06% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Baker Hughes news, CEO Lorenzo Simonelli sold 181,411 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 703,444 shares in the company, valued at approximately $41,102,232.92. This represents a 20.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 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 that occurred on Wednesday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.22, for a total transaction of $326,751.36. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 15,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,027,327.34. This represents a 24.13% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 367,910 shares of company stock worth $22,420,797 in the last three months. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Baker Hughes Stock Performance

Shares of Baker Hughes stock opened at $56.38 on Wednesday. Baker Hughes Company has a 12 month low of $39.62 and a 12 month high of $70.41. The firm has a market capitalization of $55.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.01, a P/E/G ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a current ratio of 2.13, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $60.48 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $59.77.

Baker Hughes (NASDAQ:BKR) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The company reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $6.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.71 billion. Baker Hughes had a net margin of 11.17% and a return on equity of 14.17%. The company’s revenue was up 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.51 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Baker Hughes Company will post 2.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Baker Hughes Announces Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BKR has been the subject of several research reports. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Baker Hughes from $74.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. HSBC boosted their price target on shares of Baker Hughes from $67.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Baker Hughes from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday, July 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Baker Hughes from $60.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. Finally, Zacks Research raised Baker Hughes from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, June 15th. Eighteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $70.00.

Baker Hughes 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.