Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Upgraded by StockNews.com to Buy

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note published on Monday.

HAL has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Raymond James cut their target price on shares of Halliburton from $49.00 to $47.00 and set a strong-buy rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of Halliburton from $49.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Halliburton from $55.00 to $54.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an outperform rating and set a $45.00 target price on shares of Halliburton in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, Susquehanna reissued a positive rating and issued a $49.00 price objective on shares of Halliburton in a research report on Monday, April 8th. One equities research 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Halliburton currently has an average rating of Buy and an average price target of $48.82.

Halliburton Price Performance

HAL stock opened at $38.72 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $34.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.40, a P/E/G ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 2.00. Halliburton has a 52 week low of $27.84 and a 52 week high of $43.85. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $37.81 and its 200 day moving average price is $37.41. The company has a current ratio of 2.12, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The oilfield services company reported $0.76 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.67 billion. Halliburton had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 30.84%. The firm’s revenue was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.72 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Halliburton will post 3.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Halliburton in the first quarter valued at $414,000. Strategy Asset Managers LLC boosted its stake in shares of Halliburton by 25.3% in the first quarter. Strategy Asset Managers LLC now owns 20,227 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $797,000 after purchasing an additional 4,086 shares during the period. Capital Investment Advisory Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Halliburton in the first quarter valued at $206,000. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Halliburton in the first quarter valued at $235,000. Finally, Valeo Financial Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Halliburton by 4.3% in the first quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC now owns 9,935 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $385,000 after purchasing an additional 411 shares during the period. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.