New Age Alpha Advisors LLC Purchases 8,712 Shares of Weatherford International PLC $WFRD

New Age Alpha Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Weatherford International PLC (NASDAQ:WFRD) by 19.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 53,430 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,712 shares during the period. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC owned about 0.07% of Weatherford International worth $4,181,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of WFRD. Royal Bank of Canada grew its position in shares of Weatherford International by 223.0% during the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 122,662 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,568,000 after acquiring an additional 84,684 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Weatherford International by 129.3% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 143,703 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,695,000 after acquiring an additional 81,046 shares during the period. United Services Automobile Association bought a new position in shares of Weatherford International during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $258,000. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its position in shares of Weatherford International by 26.8% during the 2nd quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 12,764 shares of the company’s stock valued at $642,000 after acquiring an additional 2,695 shares during the period. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Weatherford International by 83.5% during the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 556 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 253 shares during the period. 97.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on WFRD. Royal Bank Of Canada began coverage on shares of Weatherford International in a research report on Wednesday, March 18th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $105.00 target price for the company. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Weatherford International from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, May 18th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Weatherford International from $115.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Weatherford International from $105.00 to $113.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Weatherford International from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Friday, April 24th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Weatherford International has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $110.33.

Weatherford International Price Performance

WFRD opened at $108.79 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $100.75 and a 200 day moving average of $91.34. The company has a market cap of $7.83 billion, a PE ratio of 17.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.87. Weatherford International PLC has a 12 month low of $42.75 and a 12 month high of $113.15. The company has a current ratio of 2.31, a quick ratio of 1.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83.

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

Weatherford International Dividend Announcement

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

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.