Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. Acquires 14,505 Shares of Weatherford International PLC $WFRD

Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Weatherford International PLC (NASDAQ:WFRD) by 270.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 19,860 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 14,505 shares during the quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc.’s holdings in Weatherford International were worth $1,359,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Holocene Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Weatherford International by 712.8% in the second quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 1,646,034 shares of the company’s stock worth $82,812,000 after purchasing an additional 1,443,512 shares in the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its holdings in Weatherford International by 1,005.3% during the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 1,056,407 shares of the company’s stock valued at $53,148,000 after buying an additional 960,832 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Weatherford International during the second quarter valued at about $41,542,000. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. lifted its position in shares of Weatherford International by 1,084.6% in the second quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 686,010 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,513,000 after buying an additional 628,100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in shares of Weatherford International by 103.1% in the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,165,753 shares of the company’s stock worth $79,772,000 after buying an additional 591,694 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 97.23% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on WFRD. UBS Group increased their price objective on Weatherford International from $82.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Zacks Research lowered Weatherford International from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 14th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on Weatherford International from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 18th. Barclays lowered their price target on Weatherford International from $111.00 to $109.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 23rd. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Weatherford International from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Sunday. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $97.50.

Insider Buying and Selling at Weatherford International

In other news, CEO Girish Saligram sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.50, for a total value of $10,550,000.00. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 1.60% of the company’s stock.

Weatherford International Trading Down 3.7%

Weatherford International stock opened at $90.80 on Monday. 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 business’s 50-day simple moving average is $93.96 and its 200-day simple moving average is $78.26. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.51 billion, a PE ratio of 15.31 and a beta of 0.78. Weatherford International PLC has a 52 week low of $36.74 and a 52 week high of $110.57.

Weatherford International (NASDAQ:WFRD) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 3rd. The company reported $1.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.42 by $0.49. Weatherford International had a return on equity of 28.07% and a net margin of 8.76%.The business had revenue of $1.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.26 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.50 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 3.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Weatherford International PLC will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Weatherford International Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 5th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 6th were issued a dividend of $0.275 per share. This represents a $1.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.2%. This is a boost from Weatherford International’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 6th. Weatherford International’s dividend payout ratio is presently 18.55%.

About Weatherford International

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.