Halliburton’s (HAL) “Buy” Rating Reiterated at Benchmark

Benchmark reissued their buy rating on shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) in a research note released on Monday morning, Benzinga reports. Benchmark currently has a $42.00 target price on the oilfield services company’s stock.

Other equities analysts have also issued reports about the company. Susquehanna reduced their price objective on Halliburton from $49.00 to $46.00 and set a positive rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on shares of Halliburton from $49.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $46.00 to $48.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Halliburton from $46.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Finally, Bank of America reduced their price objective on Halliburton from $45.00 to $41.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 15th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Halliburton presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $45.53.

Halliburton Trading Up 3.6 %

Shares of HAL opened at $34.18 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 2.13 and a quick ratio of 1.54. Halliburton has a 1-year low of $32.60 and a 1-year high of $43.85. The company has a market capitalization of $30.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.83, a P/E/G ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.93. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $34.53 and its 200 day simple moving average is $36.05.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last announced its earnings results on Friday, July 19th. The oilfield services company reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.80. Halliburton had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 29.97%. The company had revenue of $5.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.95 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.77 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Halliburton will post 3.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 26th. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 5th were issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 5th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.99%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.53%.

Insider Activity at Halliburton

In other Halliburton news, EVP Van H. Beckwith sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.92, for a total value of $369,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 283,908 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,481,883.36. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, insider Jeffrey Shannon Slocum sold 38,941 shares of Halliburton stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.92, for a total transaction of $1,437,701.72. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 130,783 shares in the company, valued at $4,828,508.36. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Van H. Beckwith sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.92, for a total value of $369,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 283,908 shares in the company, valued at $10,481,883.36. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 62,287 shares of company stock worth $2,298,204 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Halliburton

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Premier Path Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Halliburton in the fourth quarter worth about $237,000. CVA Family Office LLC bought a new position in Halliburton during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $58,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Halliburton by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 59,266 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $2,142,000 after buying an additional 2,010 shares during the last quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Halliburton in the fourth quarter worth $378,000. Finally, Invera Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Halliburton in the fourth quarter worth $1,066,000. Institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

About Halliburton

Halliburton Company provides products and services to the energy industry worldwide. It operates through two segments, Completion and Production, and Drilling and Evaluation. The Completion and Production segment offers production enhancement services that include stimulation and sand control services; cementing services, such as well bonding and casing, and casing equipment; and completion tools that offer downhole solutions and services, including well completion products and services, intelligent well completions, and service tools, as well as liner hanger, sand control, and multilateral systems.