Baker Hughes Company (NASDAQ:BKR) Short Interest Down 26.3% in January

Baker Hughes Company (NASDAQ:BKR) saw a significant decrease in short interest in January. As of January 30th, there was short interest totaling 26,659,190 shares, a decrease of 26.3% from the January 15th total of 36,152,005 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 11,787,184 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.3 days. Approximately 2.7% of the company’s shares are sold short. Approximately 2.7% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 11,787,184 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.3 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Baker Hughes news, CAO Rebecca L. Charlton sold 1,985 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.77, for a total transaction of $110,703.45. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 12,052 shares in the company, valued at $672,140.04. This represents a 14.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director William G. Beattie sold 18,023 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.29, for a total transaction of $1,032,537.67. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 40,001 shares of company stock worth $2,322,692 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.27% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Baker Hughes

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BKR. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Baker Hughes by 0.5% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 123,890,075 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,035,924,000 after purchasing an additional 598,159 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its position in Baker Hughes by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 61,409,438 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,796,586,000 after buying an additional 937,614 shares during the last quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. grew its position in Baker Hughes by 1,005.1% in the 4th quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 49,353,310 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,247,550,000 after buying an additional 44,887,481 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its stake in Baker Hughes by 7.1% in the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 47,546,388 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,316,462,000 after buying an additional 3,153,709 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Baker Hughes by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 26,213,363 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,189,194,000 after buying an additional 204,534 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.06% of the company’s stock.

Baker Hughes Trading Down 0.3%

BKR opened at $61.20 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. Baker Hughes has a 52 week low of $33.60 and a 52 week high of $62.27. The business’s 50 day moving average is $51.17 and its two-hundred day moving average is $48.33. The firm has a market cap of $60.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 0.89.

Baker Hughes (NASDAQ:BKR) last announced its earnings results on Monday, January 26th. The company reported $0.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $7.39 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.09 billion. Baker Hughes had a net margin of 9.33% and a return on equity of 14.26%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.70 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Baker Hughes will post 2.59 EPS for the current year.

Baker Hughes Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 17th will be issued a $0.23 dividend. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 17th. Baker Hughes’s dividend payout ratio is presently 35.38%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have commented on BKR shares. Capital One Financial boosted their price target on shares of Baker Hughes from $53.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 27th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Baker Hughes from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. Evercore ISI reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $68.00 target price on shares of Baker Hughes in a report on Wednesday. Zephirin Group lifted their price target on Baker Hughes from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, January 26th. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their price objective on Baker Hughes from $52.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. Twenty analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $58.78.

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.