49,700 Shares in Helmerich & Payne, Inc. (NYSE:HP) Purchased by Louisiana State Employees Retirement System

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new position in shares of Helmerich & Payne, Inc. (NYSE:HP) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm acquired 49,700 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,800,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. BlackRock Inc. increased its position in Helmerich & Payne by 1.8% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 17,910,973 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $640,317,000 after purchasing an additional 319,188 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Helmerich & Payne by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,891,665 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $439,634,000 after purchasing an additional 86,545 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Helmerich & Payne by 7.7% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,335,243 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $154,985,000 after buying an additional 310,770 shares during the last quarter. Earnest Partners LLC boosted its stake in Helmerich & Payne by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 2,929,498 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $123,508,000 after buying an additional 113,735 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Helmerich & Payne by 130.8% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 2,720,464 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $98,535,000 after buying an additional 1,541,987 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.05% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. Barclays lowered Helmerich & Payne from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $44.00 to $40.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. Benchmark lowered Helmerich & Payne from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target on Helmerich & Payne from $37.00 to $33.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 12th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on Helmerich & Payne from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their price target on Helmerich & Payne from $41.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $42.88.

Helmerich & Payne Stock Performance

NYSE HP opened at $41.17 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.83, a P/E/G ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 1.51. Helmerich & Payne, Inc. has a 1-year low of $30.41 and a 1-year high of $46.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 2.11 and a quick ratio of 1.89. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $40.33 and its 200-day simple moving average is $38.63.

Helmerich & Payne (NYSE:HP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The oil and gas company reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.73 by $0.24. The business had revenue of $677.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $661.81 million. Helmerich & Payne had a return on equity of 15.06% and a net margin of 15.27%. The company’s revenue was down 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.11 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Helmerich & Payne, Inc. will post 3.61 EPS for the current year.

Helmerich & Payne Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 31st. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a dividend of $0.42 per share. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.08%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. Helmerich & Payne’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.87%.

About Helmerich & Payne

Founded in 1920, Helmerich & Payne, Inc (H&P) (NYSE: HP) is committed to delivering industry leading levels of drilling productivity and reliability. H&P operates with the highest level of integrity, safety and innovation to deliver superior results for its customers and returns for shareholders.