Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) have earned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty research firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and fourteen have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $37.42.

HAL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Halliburton from $39.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Raymond James cut shares of Halliburton from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on shares of Halliburton from $42.00 to $37.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Piper Sandler started coverage on shares of Halliburton in a report on Thursday, December 19th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $36.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Griffin Securities downgraded shares of Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th.

Halliburton Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of HAL opened at $27.83 on Monday. Halliburton has a 12-month low of $25.51 and a 12-month high of $41.56. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.83, a P/E/G ratio of 3.58 and a beta of 1.91. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $28.81 and a 200 day moving average price of $29.97. The company has a current ratio of 2.05, a quick ratio of 1.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The oilfield services company reported $0.73 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.75 by ($0.02). Halliburton had a net margin of 10.90% and a return on equity of 26.03%. The firm had revenue of $5.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.83 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.79 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Halliburton will post 2.94 EPS for the current year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 26th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 4th were issued a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 4th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.44%. Halliburton’s payout ratio is 24.03%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Halliburton

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in shares of Halliburton by 244.5% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 4,513,560 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $138,025,000 after acquiring an additional 3,203,224 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Halliburton by 23.1% during the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 16,782,174 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $487,522,000 after purchasing an additional 3,150,986 shares during the last quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC acquired a new position in Halliburton in the third quarter valued at approximately $55,132,000. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its stake in Halliburton by 22.0% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 5,520,383 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $160,367,000 after purchasing an additional 995,649 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Halliburton by 127.2% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,557,130 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $52,600,000 after purchasing an additional 871,789 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

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.