Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Receives Buy Rating from Benchmark

Benchmark restated their buy rating on shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) in a research note released on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. Benchmark currently has a $45.00 price objective on the oilfield services company’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on HAL. Raymond James reduced their price target on Halliburton from $49.00 to $47.00 and set a strong-buy rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on Halliburton from $46.00 to $48.00 in a research note on Tuesday. StockNews.com raised shares of Halliburton from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report on Monday. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an outperform rating and set a $45.00 price objective on shares of Halliburton in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $46.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Buy and a consensus price target of $48.82.

Halliburton Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of Halliburton stock opened at $38.72 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a current ratio of 2.12. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $37.75 and a 200-day moving average of $37.40. Halliburton has a 52-week low of $27.84 and a 52-week high of $43.85. The stock has a market cap of $34.32 billion, a PE ratio of 13.40, a PEG ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 2.00.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The oilfield services company reported $0.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.02. Halliburton had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 30.84%. The firm had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.67 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.72 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Halliburton will post 3.42 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Halliburton

In other news, Director Margaret Katherine Banks sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.30, for a total value of $176,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 9,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $339,762.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CEO Jeffrey Allen Miller sold 377,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.30, for a total value of $13,308,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 759,015 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,793,229.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Margaret Katherine Banks sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.30, for a total transaction of $176,500.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 9,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $339,762.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Halliburton

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Capital World Investors increased its position in Halliburton by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 121,551,234 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $4,394,077,000 after purchasing an additional 479,877 shares during the period. Sanders Capital LLC increased its position in Halliburton by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 23,538,783 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $850,927,000 after purchasing an additional 782,093 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Halliburton during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $400,070,000. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in Halliburton by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 9,202,160 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $372,687,000 after purchasing an additional 265,680 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 5.3% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,871,178 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $359,283,000 after buying an additional 448,548 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.