Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty brokerages that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $40.58.

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. UBS Group lowered shares of Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $36.00 to $34.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Halliburton from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on Halliburton from $47.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Raymond James decreased their price target on Halliburton from $41.00 to $37.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 10th.

Institutional Trading of Halliburton

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Retirement Systems of Alabama grew its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 0.3% during the third quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 195,873 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $5,690,000 after buying an additional 587 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in Halliburton by 244.5% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 4,513,560 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $138,025,000 after acquiring an additional 3,203,224 shares in the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new position in Halliburton during the 3rd quarter valued at about $358,000. World Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Halliburton by 49.5% during the 3rd quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 9,161 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $266,000 after purchasing an additional 3,032 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sanctuary Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Halliburton by 7.4% in the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 71,788 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $2,293,000 after purchasing an additional 4,970 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Halliburton Stock Performance

HAL opened at $28.68 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 2.21 and a quick ratio of 1.62. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $29.75 and a 200 day simple moving average of $31.31. Halliburton has a 1 year low of $27.26 and a 1 year high of $41.56. The company has a market capitalization of $25.20 billion, a PE ratio of 9.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.61 and a beta of 1.90.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The oilfield services company reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by ($0.02). Halliburton had a net margin of 11.04% and a return on equity of 28.33%. The business had revenue of $5.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.83 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.79 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Halliburton will post 3 EPS for the current year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 26th. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 4th will be issued a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.37%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 4th. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.69%.

Halliburton Company Profile

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.