Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Raised to “Hold” at Hsbc Global Res

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) was upgraded by stock analysts at Hsbc Global Res to a “hold” rating in a research report issued on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other brokerages have also recently commented on HAL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective 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. Raymond James downgraded shares of Halliburton from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. UBS Group cut their price target on Halliburton from $23.00 to $22.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Benchmark decreased their price objective on Halliburton from $40.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on Halliburton from $29.00 to $27.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $34.68.

Halliburton Price Performance

NYSE HAL opened at $21.19 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $18.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.49, a PEG ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 2.05 and a quick ratio of 1.54. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $23.86 and its 200 day moving average price is $26.87. Halliburton has a 1 year low of $18.72 and a 1 year high of $38.91.

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. Halliburton had a return on equity of 26.03% and a net margin of 10.90%. The business had revenue of $5.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.28 billion. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Halliburton will post 2.64 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Halliburton news, CFO Eric Carre sold 141,206 shares of Halliburton stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.13, for a total transaction of $3,689,712.78. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 127,101 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,321,149.13. The trade was a 52.63 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Margaret Katherine Banks sold 3,900 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $253,646.04. This trade represents a 26.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 206,782 shares of company stock worth $5,321,170. Corporate insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Mascagni Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in Halliburton during the fourth quarter worth approximately $28,000. Horrell Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Halliburton in the 4th quarter worth $33,000. Sierra Ocean LLC purchased a new position in shares of Halliburton during the 4th quarter worth $36,000. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Halliburton during the 4th quarter valued at about $38,000. Finally, Vermillion Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Halliburton in the fourth quarter valued at about $39,000. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.