Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH Trims Stake in Baker Hughes Company $BKR

Key Points

• Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH cut its stake in Baker Hughes (NASDAQ: BKR) by 9.2% in Q4, selling 234,382 shares and holding 2,319,207 shares worth about $105.63 million (≈0.24% of the company).
• Analysts remain broadly positive: 20 research firms rate BKR a Buy and two rate it a Hold, yielding a consensus "Moderate Buy" and a target price of $61.30.
• Significant insider selling occurred—CEO Lorenzo Simonelli sold 272,594 shares for roughly $16.03 million (a 23.93% reduction in his stake)—with insiders offloading 590,251 shares (~$35.31 million) over the last three months; insiders now own 0.19% of the stock.

Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH reduced its stake in shares of Baker Hughes Company (NASDAQ:BKR - Free Report) by 9.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,319,207 shares of the company's stock after selling 234,382 shares during the quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH owned 0.24% of Baker Hughes worth $105,630,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of BKR. Synergy Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Baker Hughes in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,920,000. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 367,728 shares in the last quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. increased its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 99,314 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 598,159 shares in the last quarter. 92.06% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Weiss Ratings restated a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Baker Hughes in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price objective on Baker Hughes from $63.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 14th. Zephirin Group boosted their price objective on Baker Hughes from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, January 26th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Baker Hughes from $61.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 15th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on Baker Hughes from $61.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 2nd. Twenty research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Baker Hughes currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $61.30.

Baker Hughes Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:BKR opened at $60.25 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 1.36 and a quick ratio of 1.00. The business's 50 day moving average price is $61.09 and its 200-day moving average price is $53.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $59.54 billion, a PE ratio of 23.17, a P/E/G ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 0.90. Baker Hughes Company has a 1 year low of $34.56 and a 1 year high of $67.00.

Baker Hughes (NASDAQ:BKR - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 26th. The company reported $0.78 earnings per share (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 analyst estimates of $7.09 billion. Baker Hughes had a return on equity of 14.26% and a net margin of 9.33%.The business's revenue was up .3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.70 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Baker Hughes Company will post 2.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Baker Hughes Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 17th were paid a $0.23 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 17th. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.5%. Baker Hughes's payout ratio is currently 35.38%.

Insider Transactions at Baker Hughes

In other news, Director William G. Beattie sold 18,023 shares of Baker Hughes stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.29, for a total value of $1,032,537.67. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Lorenzo Simonelli sold 272,594 shares of Baker Hughes stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.79, for a total value of $16,025,801.26. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 866,444 shares in the company, valued at $50,938,242.76. This represents a 23.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders sold 590,251 shares of company stock valued at $35,311,023. Insiders own 0.19% of the company's stock.

Baker Hughes 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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.