Baker Hughes (NASDAQ:BKR) Trading Down 6.1% – Time to Sell?

Baker Hughes Company (NASDAQ:BKR) shares traded down 6.1% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $62.78 and last traded at $62.6910. 1,117,171 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 88% from the average session volume of 9,271,461 shares. The stock had previously closed at $66.73.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wall Street Zen lowered Baker Hughes from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 28th. Zacks Research lowered Baker Hughes from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 28th. iA Financial set a $60.00 price objective on Baker Hughes in a report on Tuesday, January 27th. Capital One Financial boosted their target price on Baker Hughes from $66.00 to $71.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Baker Hughes from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. Eighteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Baker Hughes has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $69.41.

Baker Hughes Stock Performance

The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $63.25 and its 200 day simple moving average is $56.51. The firm has a market cap of $63.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.30, a P/E/G ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 0.97. 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 (NASDAQ:BKR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The company reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $6.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.71 billion. Baker Hughes had a net margin of 11.17% and a return on equity of 14.17%. The company’s revenue was up 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.51 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Baker Hughes Company will post 2.31 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 paid a dividend of $0.23 per share. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 5th. Baker Hughes’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 29.39%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Baker Hughes

In other news, CEO Lorenzo Simonelli sold 272,594 shares of Baker Hughes stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.79, for a total transaction of $16,025,801.26. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 866,444 shares in the company, valued at $50,938,242.76. This trade represents a 23.93% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Maria Georgia Magno sold 5,063 shares of Baker Hughes stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.04, for a total transaction of $298,919.52. Following the transaction, the insider owned 15,555 shares in the company, valued at $918,367.20. This represents a 24.56% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 550,250 shares of company stock worth $32,988,331 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Groupama Asset Managment lifted its stake in shares of Baker Hughes by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 1,932,305 shares of the company’s stock valued at $117,967,000 after buying an additional 11,297 shares in the last quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC purchased a new position in shares of Baker Hughes during the 1st quarter valued at $356,000. BankChampaign National Association purchased a new position in shares of Baker Hughes during the 1st quarter valued at $989,000. Groupe la Francaise lifted its stake in shares of Baker Hughes by 10.0% during the 1st quarter. Groupe la Francaise now owns 73,059 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,460,000 after buying an additional 6,655 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Liontrust Investment Partners LLP purchased a new position in shares of Baker Hughes during the 1st quarter valued at $10,620,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.06% of the company’s stock.

About Baker Hughes

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.