Citigroup Has Lowered Expectations for Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Stock Price

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) had its price objective cut by investment analysts at Citigroup from $33.00 to $31.00 in a research report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “buy” rating on the oilfield services company’s stock. Citigroup’s price target points to a potential upside of 48.64% from the stock’s previous close.

HAL has been the topic of several other research reports. Benchmark dropped their price target on shares of Halliburton from $40.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $34.00 target price on shares of Halliburton in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of Halliburton from $37.00 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Raymond James downgraded Halliburton from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $35.00 to $33.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $34.68.

Halliburton Stock Performance

Shares of HAL stock opened at $20.86 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $23.74 and a 200 day moving average of $26.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 2.05 and a quick ratio of 1.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.45. Halliburton has a 1 year low of $18.72 and a 1 year high of $38.89.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Eric Carre sold 51,179 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.00, for a total value of $1,279,475.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 127,101 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,177,525. The trade was a 28.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Margaret Katherine Banks sold 3,900 shares of Halliburton stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.04, for a total value of $93,756.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 10,551 shares in the company, valued at approximately $253,646.04. This trade represents a 26.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 206,782 shares of company stock worth $5,321,170 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Halliburton

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of HAL. Advisory Resource Group lifted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 32.8% in the 3rd quarter. Advisory Resource Group now owns 162,758 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $4,728,000 after buying an additional 40,182 shares during the period. World Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Halliburton by 49.5% during the 3rd quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 9,161 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $266,000 after purchasing an additional 3,032 shares during the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in Halliburton during the third quarter worth $358,000. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in Halliburton by 244.5% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 4,513,560 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $138,025,000 after purchasing an additional 3,203,224 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Systems of Alabama boosted its position in Halliburton by 0.3% during the third quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 195,873 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $5,690,000 after acquiring an additional 587 shares during the last quarter. 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.