Piper Sandler Cuts Baker Hughes (NASDAQ:BKR) Price Target to $71.00

Baker Hughes (NASDAQ:BKR) had its price target reduced by Piper Sandler from $72.00 to $71.00 in a research report report published on Tuesday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the stock.

Several other brokerages have also issued reports on BKR. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Baker Hughes in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Baker Hughes in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Barclays reissued an “equal weight” rating and set a $74.00 price objective (up from $62.00) on shares of Baker Hughes in a report on Thursday, May 7th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Baker Hughes from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Finally, Susquehanna lowered their target price on Baker Hughes from $80.00 to $70.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. Eighteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $70.00.

Baker Hughes Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:BKR opened at $56.54 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $56.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.96. The company’s 50-day moving average is $61.01 and its 200 day moving average is $59.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a current ratio of 2.13. Baker Hughes has a fifty-two week low of $38.47 and a fifty-two week high of $70.41.

Baker Hughes (NASDAQ:BKR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 23rd. The company reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $6.59 billion during 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 firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.51 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Baker Hughes will post 2.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Baker Hughes Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, 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 value of $326,751.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 15,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,027,327.34. This trade represents a 24.13% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Lorenzo Simonelli sold 181,411 shares of Baker Hughes stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.43, for a total transaction of $10,599,844.73. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 703,444 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $41,102,232.92. This represents a 20.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 367,910 shares of company stock worth $22,420,797 over the last 90 days. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Baker Hughes

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Woodline Partners LP lifted its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 24,225 shares in the last quarter. Focus Partners Wealth grew its holdings in Baker Hughes by 5.6% during the 1st quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 18,481 shares of the company’s stock valued at $812,000 after buying an additional 986 shares in the last quarter. Jump Financial LLC purchased a new position in Baker Hughes during the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,301,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Baker Hughes by 4.0% during the second quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 46,407 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,779,000 after buying an additional 1,768 shares during the period. Finally, Nebula Research & Development LLC bought a new stake in shares of Baker Hughes during the second quarter valued at about $1,014,000. 92.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Baker Hughes Company 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.