Weatherford International PLC $WFRD Shares Sold by William Blair Investment Management LLC

William Blair Investment Management LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Weatherford International PLC (NASDAQ:WFRD) by 22.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 635,479 shares of the company’s stock after selling 186,638 shares during the quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Weatherford International were worth $49,733,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WFRD. Royal Bank of Canada increased its stake in Weatherford International by 223.0% during the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 122,662 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,568,000 after acquiring an additional 84,684 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in Weatherford International by 129.3% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 143,703 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,695,000 after acquiring an additional 81,046 shares during the last quarter. United Services Automobile Association acquired a new stake in Weatherford International during the first quarter worth $258,000. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its stake in Weatherford International by 26.8% during the second quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 12,764 shares of the company’s stock worth $642,000 after acquiring an additional 2,695 shares during the last quarter. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Weatherford International by 83.5% during the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 556 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 253 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.23% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WFRD has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler raised their target price on Weatherford International from $115.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. UBS Group raised their target price on Weatherford International from $105.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. Weiss Ratings cut Weatherford International from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Friday, April 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Weatherford International from $83.00 to $107.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 4th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on Weatherford International from $115.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $110.33.

Weatherford International Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ WFRD opened at $108.79 on Monday. Weatherford International PLC has a twelve month low of $42.75 and a twelve month high of $113.15. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.82 billion, a PE ratio of 17.03, a PEG ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a current ratio of 2.31, a quick ratio of 1.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $100.28 and a 200-day simple moving average of $91.09.

Weatherford International (NASDAQ:WFRD) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 21st. The company reported $1.49 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.02 by $0.47. Weatherford International had a return on equity of 28.31% and a net margin of 9.49%.The firm had revenue of $1.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.14 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.03 EPS. Weatherford International’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Weatherford International PLC will post 6.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Weatherford International Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 4th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 6th will be paid a dividend of $0.275 per share. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 6th. Weatherford International’s payout ratio is presently 17.21%.

Weatherford International Company 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.