Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC Purchases 36,841 Shares of Baker Hughes Company $BKR

Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC grew its position in Baker Hughes Company (NASDAQ:BKR) by 43.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 121,091 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 36,841 shares during the period. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC’s holdings in Baker Hughes were worth $5,514,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of BKR. Woodline Partners LP lifted its stake in shares of Baker Hughes by 40.8% during the 1st quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 83,650 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,676,000 after buying an additional 24,225 shares during the last quarter. Focus Partners Wealth lifted its stake in shares of Baker Hughes by 5.6% during the 1st quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 18,481 shares of the company’s stock worth $812,000 after buying an additional 986 shares during the last quarter. Jump Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Baker Hughes during the 2nd quarter worth about $2,301,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Baker Hughes by 4.0% during the 2nd quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 46,407 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,779,000 after buying an additional 1,768 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nebula Research & Development LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Baker Hughes during the 2nd quarter worth about $1,014,000. Institutional investors own 92.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Baker Hughes from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 28th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Baker Hughes from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Johnson Rice assumed coverage on shares of Baker Hughes in a research note on Wednesday, February 25th. They set a “buy” rating and a $68.00 target price for the company. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Baker Hughes in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Finally, Barclays restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $74.00 target price (up from $62.00) on shares of Baker Hughes in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Eighteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $69.41.

Baker Hughes Price Performance

Shares of Baker Hughes stock opened at $63.20 on Thursday. Baker Hughes Company has a twelve month low of $36.53 and a twelve month high of $70.41. The company has a quick ratio of 1.77, a current ratio of 2.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $63.41 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $56.62. The stock has a market capitalization of $62.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 0.97.

Baker Hughes (NASDAQ:BKR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 23rd. The company reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.09. Baker Hughes had a net margin of 11.17% and a return on equity of 14.17%. The business had revenue of $6.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.71 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.51 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 2.5% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Baker Hughes Company will post 2.31 EPS for the current year.

Baker Hughes Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 5th were paid a $0.23 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 5th. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.5%. Baker Hughes’s payout ratio is 29.39%.

Insider Activity

In other Baker Hughes news, insider Maria Georgia Magno sold 5,063 shares of Baker Hughes stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.04, for a total value of $298,919.52. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 15,555 shares in the company, valued at $918,367.20. The trade was a 24.56% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Lorenzo Simonelli sold 272,594 shares of Baker Hughes stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.79, for a total transaction of $16,025,801.26. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 866,444 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $50,938,242.76. This trade represents a 23.93% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 550,250 shares of company stock valued at $32,988,331 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

About Baker Hughes

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.