Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Upgraded by Hsbc Global Res to “Hold” Rating

Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) to a hold rating in a report released on Wednesday morning,Zacks.com reports.

Several other brokerages have also recently commented on HAL. Benchmark decreased their target price on shares of Halliburton from $40.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Halliburton from $35.00 to $33.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Susquehanna lowered their price target on Halliburton from $32.00 to $30.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $34.00 price objective on shares of Halliburton in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on shares of Halliburton from $37.00 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Halliburton currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $34.68.

Halliburton Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE HAL opened at $21.19 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 1.54 and a current ratio of 2.05. The firm has a market cap of $18.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.49, a PEG ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.45. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $23.86 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $26.87. Halliburton has a 1 year low of $18.72 and a 1 year high of $38.91.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 22nd. The oilfield services company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.60. Halliburton had a net margin of 10.90% and a return on equity of 26.03%. The company had revenue of $5.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.28 billion. Research analysts forecast that Halliburton will post 2.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th were given a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.21%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is currently 28.45%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, VP Timothy Mckeon sold 10,497 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.60, for a total value of $258,226.20. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 77,784 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,913,486.40. The trade was a 11.89 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Margaret Katherine Banks sold 3,900 shares of Halliburton stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.04, for a total transaction of $93,756.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 10,551 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $253,646.04. This represents a 26.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 206,782 shares of company stock valued at $5,321,170 over the last ninety days. 0.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Clarus Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Halliburton by 4.7% during the first quarter. Clarus Group Inc. now owns 15,567 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $395,000 after purchasing an additional 693 shares in the last quarter. BSW Wealth Partners bought a new stake in shares of Halliburton in the 1st quarter valued at $244,000. U S Global Investors Inc. acquired a new stake in Halliburton during the 1st quarter worth approximately $76,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its position in Halliburton by 754.5% in the 1st quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 824,549 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $20,671,000 after acquiring an additional 728,059 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Achmea Investment Management B.V. boosted its position in shares of Halliburton by 74.5% during the first quarter. Achmea Investment Management B.V. now owns 208,617 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $5,293,000 after buying an additional 89,089 shares during the period. 85.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.