Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Cut to “Sector Perform” at Royal Bank of Canada

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) was downgraded by stock analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research report issued on Friday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have a $37.00 price objective on the oilfield services company’s stock, down from their previous price objective of $44.00. Royal Bank of Canada’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 32.07% from the stock’s previous close.

HAL has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on Halliburton from $46.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on Halliburton from $47.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Johnson Rice upgraded Halliburton to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 19th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on Halliburton from $47.00 to $46.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, Benchmark restated a “buy” rating and set a $42.00 target price on shares of Halliburton in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $44.47.

Halliburton Price Performance

Shares of HAL opened at $28.02 on Friday. Halliburton has a 12-month low of $27.52 and a 12-month high of $43.85. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $32.01 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $35.10. The company has a quick ratio of 1.54, a current ratio of 2.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76. The stock has a market cap of $24.73 billion, a PE ratio of 9.69, a PEG ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 1.89.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 19th. The oilfield services company reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.80. Halliburton had a return on equity of 29.97% and a net margin of 11.61%. The firm had revenue of $5.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.95 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.77 EPS. The business’s revenue was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Halliburton will post 3.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Halliburton

In other Halliburton news, EVP Van H. Beckwith sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.75, for a total value of $367,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 273,908 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,066,119. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.61% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Halliburton

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. 9258 Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Halliburton by 14.0% during the fourth quarter. 9258 Wealth Management LLC now owns 30,879 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $1,116,000 after buying an additional 3,803 shares during the period. Principal Securities Inc. bought a new stake in Halliburton during the fourth quarter valued at $285,000. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. boosted its stake in Halliburton by 7.8% during the fourth quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 17,924 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $648,000 after buying an additional 1,304 shares during the period. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. boosted its stake in Halliburton by 27.1% during the fourth quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 13,827 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $500,000 after buying an additional 2,952 shares during the period. Finally, Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Halliburton by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC now owns 26,127 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $945,000 after buying an additional 733 shares during the period. 85.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.