Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) has been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by 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 issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $38.95.

Several equities analysts have recently commented on HAL shares. Raymond James cut shares of Halliburton from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday. 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 research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Piper Sandler initiated coverage on Halliburton in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $36.00 price target on the stock. Griffin Securities downgraded shares of Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Susquehanna dropped their target price 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.

Halliburton Price Performance

Shares of NYSE HAL opened at $27.62 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $29.02 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $30.47. Halliburton has a fifty-two week low of $25.51 and a fifty-two week high of $41.56. The firm has a market cap of $24.26 billion, a PE ratio of 9.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 1.91. 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 issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The oilfield services company reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $5.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.83 billion. Halliburton had a return on equity of 28.33% and a net margin of 11.04%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.79 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Halliburton will post 3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 26th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 2.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 4th. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.69%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Halliburton

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of HAL. Cary Street Partners Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Halliburton by 56.5% in the 3rd quarter. Cary Street Partners Asset Management LLC now owns 157,085 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $4,563,000 after acquiring an additional 56,707 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board lifted its position in Halliburton by 146.0% in the second quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 842,355 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $28,455,000 after purchasing an additional 500,000 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its position in shares of Halliburton by 105.2% during the 2nd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 186,961 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $6,316,000 after purchasing an additional 95,864 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Halliburton by 23.1% in the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 16,782,174 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $487,522,000 after buying an additional 3,150,986 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quest Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 2,418.9% in the third quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 78,387 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $2,277,000 after buying an additional 75,275 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Halliburton Company Profile

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.