As of Apr 30, 2025: $41.40 (-5.05%)

Hold the oil rig—we have a situation.

Director Neal Goldman, whose investing resume includes more acronyms and defunct companies than a Wall Street bingo card (Toys R Us, Ditech, NII Holdings, and yes, Mallinckrodt), just dropped $504,529 on 12,000 shares of Weatherford International.

At $42.04 a share, he boosted his stake by 90%. 🍈 Either he knows something we don’t, or he loves pain.

Spoiler alert: The guy co-built Brigade Capital Management to $12B AUM. So… probably not an amateur hour.

🥇 The Institutions? They Already Own the Playground

Institutional ownership is an eye-watering 103.47%.

Even if you just bought the stock, someone else probably owns your shares in a parallel financial universe.

Top holders:

• Vanguard: 10.7%

• BlackRock: 10.1%

• Capital Research: 8.2%

• T. Rowe Price (x2): 13.9% combined

• FMR (Fidelity): 5.0%

When this much smart money is involved, you’re either early, lucky, or wrong.

⛏️ What Even Is Weatherford?

Weatherford International is a Swiss-domiciled, Texas-rooted, oilfield tech juggernaut. They help drill, measure, complete, produce, fix, and re-fix energy wells (oil, gas, geothermal).

Business Segments:

• Drilling & Evaluation

• Well Construction & Completions

• Production & Intervention

And they just inked a deal with AIQ in Abu Dhabi to supercharge global oil efficiency with AI-powered analytics. Siri, drill me a well. 🚀🪨

📊 Q1 2025 Earnings: Uhhh...

Not their hottest quarter, tbh.

• Revenue: $1.19B, down 12%

• Net Income: $76M, down 32%

• Adjusted EBITDA: $253M, down 25%

• Free Cash Flow: $66M

The good news? Still profitable. The better news? They still returned $71M to shareholders. 🚀

• Dividend: $0.25/share (2.42% yield)

• Share buybacks: $53M

Oh, and they sold off their Argentina pressure pumping biz. One less thing to worry about.

🌍 CEO Says...

"Market softening in North America, Mexico, UK. Macro headwinds, geopolitical tension, etc. But we’re staying focused on free cash flow and operational efficiency."

Translation:

The storm is real, but the sails are tight. ⛵️

🔫 The Valuation Play:

This baby has dropped like a rock from a July 2024 high of $135/share to $41.40.

But let’s check the stats:

• P/E: 6.59

• Forward P/E: 7.33

• Price/Sales: 0.58

• EV/EBITDA: 3.46

So yes, it’s cheap.

⚡ The Risks:

1. Oil volatility (duh)

2. Geopolitical chaos (hello, surprise coups and trade bans)

3. Cyclicality (boom → bust → boom... then bust again)

4. Debt: D/E = 1.29 — high but not catastrophic

5. History: They filed Chapter 11 in 2019. (Came back stronger... hopefully not on loop.)

🔍 Our Take:

Weatherford is one of those unloved energy stocks that might just be a turnaround tale in the making. If oil prices don’t collapse and if they keep trimming costs, repurchasing shares, and leveraging AI...

Well, let's just say you heard it here first.

Neal Goldman’s $500K bet could look like a steal by 2026.

Or… like an oil spill. 🚨

But with a 2.4% dividend and big institutions watching their every move?

It’s worth a closer look.

Disclaimer (aka: Drill, Don’t Spill): We are not financial advisors. We’re oiling the wheels of finance with jokes and charts. Invest wisely. Or foolishly. But not blindly.