Citigroup Lowers Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Price Target to $45.00

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) had its target price cut by stock analysts at Citigroup from $50.00 to $45.00 in a research note issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “buy” rating on the oilfield services company’s stock. Citigroup’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 33.21% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other research firms have also recently commented on HAL. StockNews.com raised shares of Halliburton from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 25th. TD Cowen increased their target price on Halliburton from $47.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on Halliburton from $46.00 to $48.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. UBS Group increased their price objective on Halliburton from $46.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Halliburton from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $48.75.

Halliburton Price Performance

NYSE:HAL opened at $33.78 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.52, a current ratio of 2.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. Halliburton has a 52 week low of $32.27 and a 52 week high of $43.85. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $35.89 and its 200-day moving average price is $36.34. The stock has a market capitalization of $29.91 billion, a PE ratio of 11.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.85 and a beta of 1.93.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The oilfield services company reported $0.76 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.02. Halliburton had a return on equity of 30.84% and a net margin of 11.20%. The business had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.67 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.72 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Halliburton will post 3.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Jill D. Sharp sold 3,346 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.00, for a total transaction of $123,802.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 40,185 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,486,845. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Jill D. Sharp sold 3,346 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.00, for a total value of $123,802.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 40,185 shares in the company, valued at $1,486,845. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jeffrey Shannon Slocum sold 38,941 shares of Halliburton stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.92, for a total value of $1,437,701.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 130,783 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,828,508.36. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 52,287 shares of company stock valued at $1,930,704. 0.61% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Halliburton

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in HAL. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 46.0% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 61,090,055 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $2,408,171,000 after acquiring an additional 19,237,784 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Halliburton during the fourth quarter worth approximately $400,070,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Halliburton by 2.7% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 100,274,105 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $3,952,805,000 after purchasing an additional 2,618,740 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 24.9% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 7,878,811 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $284,822,000 after buying an additional 1,568,485 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Halliburton by 116.9% in the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,483,230 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $97,889,000 after buying an additional 1,338,371 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.