Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) has earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty brokerages that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, fourteen have issued a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $39.58.

A number of brokerages have weighed in on HAL. Susquehanna decreased their price target on shares of Halliburton from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 8th. UBS Group cut Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $36.00 to $34.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. Dbs Bank assumed coverage on Halliburton in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. They set a “buy” rating and a $45.00 price target for the company. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on Halliburton from $39.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Piper Sandler assumed coverage on shares of Halliburton in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $36.00 price target on the stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Halliburton

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Country Trust Bank bought a new stake in Halliburton in the 3rd quarter valued at about $36,000. Continuum Advisory LLC boosted its holdings in Halliburton by 101.2% during the third 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 in the last quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Halliburton during the 3rd quarter worth $44,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Halliburton by 34.2% in the 3rd quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,618 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 412 shares during the period. Finally, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. increased its stake in Halliburton by 28.8% in the 3rd quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 1,759 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 393 shares in the last quarter. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Halliburton Price Performance

HAL stock opened at $27.19 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.61 and a beta of 1.90. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $29.04 and its 200-day simple moving average is $30.61. Halliburton has a 52-week low of $25.51 and a 52-week high of $41.56. The company has a quick ratio of 1.62, a current ratio of 2.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last posted 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 net margin of 11.04% and a return on equity of 28.33%. The company had revenue of $5.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.83 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.79 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Halliburton will post 3 EPS for the current year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 26th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 4th were issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 4th. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.69%.

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.