Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Receives $39.58 Average Price Target from Analysts

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) has been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty research firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, fourteen have assigned a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $38.95.

HAL has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on Halliburton from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Barclays reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $33.00 target price (down previously from $43.00) on shares of Halliburton in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price target on shares of Halliburton in a report on Friday, November 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $35.00 to $33.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Susquehanna dropped their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 8th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Halliburton

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in HAL. MidWestOne Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Halliburton by 4.4% during the third quarter. MidWestOne Financial Group Inc. now owns 8,610 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $250,000 after purchasing an additional 359 shares in the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board grew its stake in Halliburton by 0.3% in the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 154,210 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $4,480,000 after acquiring an additional 390 shares during the period. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. increased its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 28.8% in the third quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 1,759 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $51,000 after acquiring an additional 393 shares in the last quarter. Northwest Bank & Trust Co raised its position in shares of Halliburton by 3.2% during the third quarter. Northwest Bank & Trust Co now owns 12,979 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $377,000 after purchasing an additional 397 shares during the period. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 34.2% during 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Halliburton Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of HAL stock opened at $27.68 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 1.62 and a current ratio of 2.21. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $29.02 and a 200-day moving average of $30.55. Halliburton has a 52-week low of $25.51 and a 52-week high of $41.56. The stock has a market cap of $24.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.64, a P/E/G ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 1.90.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The oilfield services company reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.75 by ($0.02). Halliburton had a return on equity of 28.33% and a net margin of 11.04%. The business had revenue of $5.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.83 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.79 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Halliburton will post 3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.46%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, December 4th. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.