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

Shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty research firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, fourteen have assigned a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $39.58.

HAL has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Dbs Bank assumed coverage on Halliburton in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. They set a “buy” rating and a $45.00 target price for the company. Barclays reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $33.00 price objective (down from $43.00) on shares of Halliburton in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Royal Bank of Canada downgraded shares of Halliburton from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $44.00 to $37.00 in a report on Friday, September 13th. Susquehanna decreased their price target on shares of Halliburton from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Halliburton from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 18th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC grew its stake in Halliburton by 1.4% during the second quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 134,909 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $4,557,000 after buying an additional 1,920 shares during the last quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Halliburton by 12.0% during the 2nd quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 6,082 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $205,000 after purchasing an additional 651 shares in the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC raised its position in Halliburton by 2.6% in the 2nd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 57,948 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $1,957,000 after purchasing an additional 1,476 shares during the last quarter. Stablepoint Partners LLC boosted its stake in Halliburton by 7.5% in the second quarter. Stablepoint Partners LLC now owns 28,533 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $967,000 after purchasing an additional 1,989 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc grew its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 9.2% during the second quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 349,841 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $11,818,000 after purchasing an additional 29,554 shares during the last quarter. 85.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Halliburton Price Performance

HAL opened at $27.19 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $29.04 and a 200 day moving average price of $30.61. The company has a current ratio of 2.21, a quick ratio of 1.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. Halliburton has a 1 year low of $25.51 and a 1 year high of $41.56. The stock has a market cap of $23.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.47, a PEG ratio of 3.61 and a beta of 1.90.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The oilfield services company reported $0.73 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by ($0.02). Halliburton had a return on equity of 28.33% and a net margin of 11.04%. The firm had revenue of $5.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.83 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.79 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Halliburton will post 3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 26th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 4th were issued a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 4th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.50%. Halliburton’s payout ratio is presently 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.