Halliburton’s (HAL) Buy Rating Reaffirmed at Benchmark

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

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on HAL. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Halliburton from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Raymond James cut their price objective on Halliburton from $49.00 to $47.00 and set a strong-buy rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Susquehanna reissued a positive rating and set a $49.00 price objective on shares of Halliburton in a research report on Monday, April 8th. StockNews.com raised Halliburton from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Halliburton from $46.00 to $48.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Buy and an average target price of $48.82.

Halliburton Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:HAL opened at $38.54 on Wednesday. Halliburton has a fifty-two week low of $27.84 and a fifty-two week high of $43.85. The business has a 50-day moving average of $37.88 and a two-hundred day moving average of $37.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $34.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.34, a P/E/G ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 2.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 2.12 and a quick ratio of 1.48.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The oilfield services company reported $0.76 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.02. Halliburton had a return on equity of 30.84% and a net margin of 11.20%. The company had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.67 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.72 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Halliburton will post 3.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Halliburton

In related news, CEO Jeffrey Allen Miller sold 377,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.30, for a total transaction of $13,308,100.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 759,015 shares in the company, valued at $26,793,229.50. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 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 sale, the director now directly owns 9,625 shares in the company, valued at approximately $339,762.50. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Jeffrey Allen Miller sold 377,000 shares of the company’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 value of $13,308,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 759,015 shares in the company, valued at $26,793,229.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Halliburton

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Halliburton during the 4th quarter worth $400,070,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Halliburton by 24.9% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 7,878,811 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $284,822,000 after purchasing an additional 1,568,485 shares during the period. Sourcerock Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Halliburton by 237.6% in the 3rd quarter. Sourcerock Group LLC now owns 1,677,194 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $67,926,000 after purchasing an additional 1,180,406 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of Halliburton by 18.3% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 6,217,704 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $224,770,000 after purchasing an additional 962,547 shares during the period. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC lifted its stake in shares of Halliburton by 51.2% in the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,539,062 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $91,787,000 after purchasing an additional 859,440 shares during the period. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Halliburton

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.