Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Cut to Neutral at Griffin Securities

Griffin Securities cut shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a report released on Friday, Marketbeat reports.

HAL has been the topic of a number of other reports. Raymond James reduced their price target on shares of Halliburton from $41.00 to $37.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered Halliburton from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $44.00 to $37.00 in a report on Friday, September 13th. Susquehanna decreased their target price on Halliburton from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 8th. UBS Group lowered Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $36.00 to $34.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on Halliburton from $47.00 to $46.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $39.58.

Halliburton Trading Up 0.8 %

NYSE:HAL opened at $25.97 on Friday. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $22.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.05, a PEG ratio of 3.61 and a beta of 1.90. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $29.35 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $31.00.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The oilfield services company reported $0.73 earnings per share 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 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 business earned $0.79 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Halliburton will post 3 earnings per share for the current year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 26th. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 4th will be given a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 4th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.62%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is 23.69%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Country Trust Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Halliburton in the 3rd quarter valued at $36,000. Continuum Advisory LLC lifted its position in shares of Halliburton by 101.2% during the 3rd quarter. Continuum Advisory LLC now owns 1,388 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $42,000 after buying an additional 698 shares during the last quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Halliburton in the third quarter valued at about $44,000. Mattson Financial Services LLC bought a new position in Halliburton in the second quarter valued at about $54,000. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Halliburton by 34.2% during the third quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,618 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $47,000 after acquiring an additional 412 shares in the last quarter. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.