Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Price Target Lowered to $31.00 at Citigroup

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) had its price target lowered by Citigroup from $33.00 to $31.00 in a research note released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. Citigroup currently has a buy rating on the oilfield services company’s stock.

A number of other research analysts also recently commented on the company. Barclays dropped their price objective on Halliburton from $29.00 to $26.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Raymond James cut shares of Halliburton from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Halliburton from $35.00 to $33.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $29.00 to $27.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Benchmark decreased their target price on shares of Halliburton from $40.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $34.68.

Halliburton Stock Up 2.8 %

Shares of NYSE:HAL opened at $21.19 on Thursday. Halliburton has a fifty-two week low of $18.72 and a fifty-two week high of $38.91. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $23.86 and its 200 day moving average price is $26.87. The company has a quick ratio of 1.54, a current ratio of 2.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The stock has a market cap of $18.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.45.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 22nd. The oilfield services company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60. The business had revenue of $5.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.28 billion. Halliburton had a net margin of 10.90% and a return on equity of 26.03%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Halliburton will post 2.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 5th were given a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.21%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is presently 28.45%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Margaret Katherine Banks sold 3,900 shares of Halliburton stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.04, for a total transaction of $93,756.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 10,551 shares in the company, valued at approximately $253,646.04. This trade represents a 26.99 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Eric Carre sold 51,179 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.00, for a total transaction of $1,279,475.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 127,101 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,177,525. This trade represents a 28.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 206,782 shares of company stock worth $5,321,170. Insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Halliburton

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in HAL. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Halliburton during the 4th quarter worth about $299,986,000. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 3,203,224 shares during the last quarter. Amundi increased its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 22.2% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 13,068,025 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $353,242,000 after buying an additional 2,378,043 shares during the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC boosted its holdings in Halliburton by 15.6% in the fourth quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 16,093,680 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $437,587,000 after acquiring an additional 2,171,722 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in Halliburton by 10.4% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 18,530,937 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $503,856,000 after acquiring an additional 1,748,763 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

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.