Victory Capital Management Inc. Decreases Stake in Weatherford International PLC $WFRD

Victory Capital Management Inc. lessened its position in shares of Weatherford International PLC (NASDAQ:WFRD) by 11.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,057,537 shares of the company’s stock after selling 138,897 shares during the quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. owned about 1.47% of Weatherford International worth $72,367,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. New York State Common Retirement Fund grew its holdings in shares of Weatherford International by 20.3% in the third quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 326,892 shares of the company’s stock valued at $22,369,000 after purchasing an additional 55,183 shares in the last quarter. Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC lifted its position in Weatherford International by 110.8% during the second quarter. Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC now owns 708,180 shares of the company’s stock valued at $35,629,000 after purchasing an additional 372,192 shares during the last quarter. SummerHaven Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Weatherford International during the third quarter valued at $1,014,000. Cooke & Bieler LP grew its stake in shares of Weatherford International by 6.0% in the 3rd quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 303,850 shares of the company’s stock worth $20,792,000 after buying an additional 17,330 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Weatherford International in the 3rd quarter worth about $20,725,000. Institutional investors own 97.23% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Weatherford International

In other news, CEO Girish Saligram sold 100,000 shares of Weatherford International stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.50, for a total transaction of $10,550,000.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 2.09% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on WFRD. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Weatherford International from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, February 28th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Weatherford International in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Zacks Research cut Weatherford International from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Weatherford International from $83.00 to $107.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Barclays lowered their price target on Weatherford International from $111.00 to $109.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 23rd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $97.50.

Weatherford International Price Performance

Shares of WFRD stock opened at $94.27 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $93.69 and a 200 day moving average price of $77.72. Weatherford International PLC has a 52-week low of $36.74 and a 52-week high of $110.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 1.65 and a current ratio of 2.19. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.90 and a beta of 0.78.

Weatherford International (NASDAQ:WFRD) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 3rd. The company reported $1.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.42 by $0.49. The business had revenue of $1.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.26 billion. Weatherford International had a return on equity of 28.07% and a net margin of 8.76%.The business’s revenue was down 3.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.50 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Weatherford International PLC will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Weatherford International Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 5th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 6th were paid a $0.275 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 6th. This represents a $1.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.2%. This is an increase from Weatherford International’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. Weatherford International’s payout ratio is currently 18.55%.

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.