Citigroup Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Baker Hughes (NASDAQ:BKR) Stock

Baker Hughes (NASDAQ:BKR) had its target price raised by investment analysts at Citigroup from $64.00 to $69.00 in a research report issued on Monday,MarketScreener reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the stock. Citigroup’s price objective points to a potential upside of 14.44% from the company’s previous close.

Other equities analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $57.00 price objective on shares of Baker Hughes in a report on Thursday, January 15th. Zephirin Group boosted their price target on Baker Hughes from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, January 26th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Baker Hughes from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, March 28th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Baker Hughes in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on shares of Baker Hughes from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. Twenty analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Baker Hughes currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $60.39.

Baker Hughes Stock Down 0.7%

Shares of BKR opened at $60.30 on Monday. Baker Hughes has a 52 week low of $34.06 and a 52 week high of $67.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. The company has a market capitalization of $59.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.16, a PEG ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 0.90. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $60.29 and its 200-day moving average price is $52.47.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Baker Hughes news, Director William G. Beattie sold 18,023 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.29, for a total transaction of $1,032,537.67. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Maria Georgia Magno sold 5,063 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 approximately $918,367.20. The trade was a 24.56% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 590,251 shares of company stock worth $35,311,023 over the last ninety days. 0.27% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Baker Hughes

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BKR. Synergy Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Baker Hughes during the third quarter worth approximately $1,920,000. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in Baker Hughes by 12.7% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,755,743 shares of the company’s stock valued at $125,813,000 after buying an additional 309,996 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in Baker Hughes by 5.4% in the third quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 7,147,684 shares of the company’s stock valued at $348,234,000 after purchasing an additional 367,728 shares in the last quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. increased its stake in Baker Hughes by 13.6% in the third quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 829,816 shares of the company’s stock valued at $40,429,000 after purchasing an additional 99,314 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.06% of the company’s stock.

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.