Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Rating Increased to Buy at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HALFree Report) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday morning,Wall Street Zen reports.

HAL has been the topic of a number of other reports. Argus cut their price target on shares of Halliburton from $45.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. BMO Capital Markets set a $37.00 price objective on shares of Halliburton in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Halliburton in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Halliburton from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 22nd. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Halliburton from $39.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, September 14th. Eighteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Halliburton has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $43.24.

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Halliburton Stock Performance

Shares of HAL opened at $33.65 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $34.45 and a 200 day moving average of $36.67. The company has a market capitalization of $28.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.62, a PEG ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.76. Halliburton has a 12 month low of $21.46 and a 12 month high of $43.59. The company has a current ratio of 2.02, a quick ratio of 1.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64.

Halliburton (NYSE:HALGet Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 21st. The oilfield services company reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.01. Halliburton had a return on equity of 18.71% and a net margin of 7.16%.The business had revenue of $5.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.50 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.55 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Halliburton will post 2.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 23rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 2nd will be paid a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 2nd. Halliburton’s payout ratio is currently 35.60%.

Insider Transactions at Halliburton

In other Halliburton news, COO Jeffrey Slocum sold 52,572 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.09, for a total transaction of $1,844,751.48. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 118,730 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,166,235.70. This represents a 30.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Corporate insiders own 0.57% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Halliburton

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Halliburton during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $2,812,327,000. Capital Research Global Investors grew its stake in Halliburton by 21.1% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 110,220,971 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $3,114,848,000 after buying an additional 19,190,520 shares in the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC bought a new stake in Halliburton during the 2nd quarter valued at $345,941,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in Halliburton during the 2nd quarter valued at $337,486,000. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Halliburton during the fourth quarter worth $169,304,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Halliburton News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Halliburton this week:

Halliburton Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Halliburton Company (NYSE: HAL) is a global provider of products and services for the energy industry. The company supports oil and natural gas exploration, development and production across the life cycle of a well, serving both independent and national oil companies.

Halliburton operates through two principal business segments: Completion and Production, which provides cementing, stimulation, intervention and completion services; and Drilling and Evaluation, which offers drilling services, formation evaluation, well construction, project management and related technologies.

Further Reading

Analyst Recommendations for Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

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