Boothbay Fund Management LLC Buys 30,532 Shares of Weatherford International PLC $WFRD

Boothbay Fund Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Weatherford International PLC (NASDAQ:WFRD) by 347.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 39,316 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 30,532 shares during the quarter. Boothbay Fund Management LLC owned 0.05% of Weatherford International worth $2,690,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its stake in shares of Weatherford International by 72.0% in the third quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 148,164 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,139,000 after buying an additional 62,007 shares during the period. Creative Planning grew its holdings in Weatherford International by 23.0% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 16,495 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,129,000 after acquiring an additional 3,087 shares during the last quarter. SummitTX Capital L.P. increased its position in shares of Weatherford International by 1,604.9% in the third quarter. SummitTX Capital L.P. now owns 100,588 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,883,000 after acquiring an additional 94,688 shares during the period. Zacks Investment Management bought a new position in shares of Weatherford International during the third quarter valued at about $1,409,000. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. raised its stake in shares of Weatherford International by 33.4% during the third quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 147,715 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,108,000 after acquiring an additional 36,969 shares during the last quarter. 97.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WFRD has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler raised their target price on Weatherford International from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 18th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Weatherford International in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Citigroup increased their price objective on Weatherford International from $93.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Weatherford International from $82.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on Weatherford International from $83.00 to $107.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $97.50.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Girish Saligram sold 100,000 shares of Weatherford International stock in a transaction dated 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 1.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Weatherford International Price Performance

WFRD stock opened at $86.80 on Tuesday. 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 firm has a 50 day moving average price of $94.98 and a 200-day moving average price of $79.42. Weatherford International PLC has a 52-week low of $36.74 and a 52-week high of $110.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.64 and a beta of 0.78.

Weatherford International (NASDAQ:WFRD) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $1.29 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.26 billion. Weatherford International had a return on equity of 28.07% and a net margin of 8.76%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 3.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.50 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Weatherford International PLC will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Weatherford International Increases Dividend

The business 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. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 6th. This is a boost from Weatherford International’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%. Weatherford International’s dividend payout ratio is 18.55%.

Weatherford International Profile

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.