Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Rating Lowered to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) was downgraded by research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating and set a $43.00 price target on shares of Halliburton in a research note on Wednesday, July 22nd. Argus lowered their price objective on Halliburton from $45.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Capital One Financial increased their target price on Halliburton from $41.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. BMO Capital Markets set a $37.00 target price on Halliburton in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Finally, Piper Sandler raised Halliburton from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $40.00 to $43.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 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, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $43.10.

Halliburton Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of HAL stock opened at $34.44 on Friday. Halliburton has a 52-week low of $20.78 and a 52-week high of $43.59. The stock has a market cap of $28.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.03, a P/E/G ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 1.50 and a current ratio of 2.02. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $34.42 and a 200-day moving average of $36.47.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 21st. The oilfield services company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $5.71 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.50 billion. Halliburton had a net margin of 7.16% and a return on equity of 18.71%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.55 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Halliburton will post 2.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Eric Carre sold 24,778 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.89, for a total value of $889,282.42. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 148,520 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,330,382.80. The trade was a 14.30% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Company insiders own 0.57% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Halliburton

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in Halliburton in the second quarter worth $2,812,327,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 82,596.0% during the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 29,771,388 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $841,339,000 after purchasing an additional 29,735,387 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in shares of Halliburton by 21.1% in the fourth 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 acquired a new stake in shares of Halliburton in the second quarter valued at $345,941,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Halliburton in the second quarter valued at $337,486,000. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Halliburton Company Profile

Halliburton is one of the world’s largest providers of products and services to the energy industry, offering a broad portfolio that supports the lifecycle of oil and gas reservoirs from exploration and drilling through production and abandonment. Founded in 1919 by Erle P. Halliburton as an oil-well cementing company, the firm is headquartered in Houston, Texas and has developed into an integrated oilfield services company serving upstream operators globally.

The company’s activities encompass drilling and evaluation, well construction and completion, production enhancement and well intervention.