Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Lowered to “Hold” Rating by Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report published on Monday,Wall Street Zen reports.

Several other equities research analysts have also issued reports on the stock. Capital One Financial increased their target price on shares of Halliburton from $41.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $43.00 price target on shares of Halliburton in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Freedom Capital upgraded Halliburton from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Halliburton from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on Halliburton from $47.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Eighteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $43.10.

Halliburton Price Performance

NYSE:HAL opened at $36.82 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 2.02 and a quick ratio of 1.50. The firm has a market cap of $30.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $33.85 and a 200-day moving average price of $36.57. Halliburton has a 1-year low of $21.40 and a 1-year high of $43.59.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 21st. The oilfield services company reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $5.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.50 billion. Halliburton had a net margin of 7.16% and a return on equity of 18.71%. The business’s revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.55 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Halliburton will post 2.34 EPS for the current year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

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 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 2nd. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is currently 35.60%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Halliburton news, CFO Eric Carre sold 24,778 shares of Halliburton stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.89, for a total transaction of $889,282.42. Following the sale, the chief financial officer 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 document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, COO Jeffrey Shannon Slocum sold 52,572 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 19th. The stock was 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. The trade was a 30.69% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Company insiders own 0.57% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Halliburton

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of HAL. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 7.5% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 92,754 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $2,353,000 after purchasing an additional 6,507 shares during the last quarter. Woodline Partners LP boosted its stake in Halliburton by 39.0% during the first quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 73,341 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $1,861,000 after buying an additional 20,583 shares during the last quarter. Focus Partners Wealth boosted its stake in Halliburton by 25.0% during the first quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 52,045 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $1,320,000 after buying an additional 10,408 shares during the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Halliburton by 309.1% in the 1st quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 68,946 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $1,749,000 after buying an additional 52,092 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Halliburton in the 1st quarter valued at $895,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

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.