Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Sets New 52-Week Low Following Analyst Downgrade

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) shares hit a new 52-week low on Tuesday after Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on the stock from $39.00 to $34.00. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Halliburton traded as low as $27.18 and last traded at $27.24, with a volume of 1934138 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $27.87.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the stock. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on shares of Halliburton from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Bank of America reduced their target price on Halliburton from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Raymond James lowered their price target on Halliburton from $41.00 to $37.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 8th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $45.00 to $42.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Finally, UBS Group downgraded shares of Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $36.00 to $34.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Halliburton presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $40.32.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Halliburton

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in shares of Halliburton by 3.1% in the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 22,629 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $764,000 after purchasing an additional 675 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. grew its position in shares of Halliburton by 21.1% during the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 7,021 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $237,000 after acquiring an additional 1,223 shares during the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 93,233 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $3,149,000 after acquiring an additional 441 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its position in Halliburton by 2.1% in the 2nd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 14,027 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $474,000 after purchasing an additional 295 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Halliburton by 43.1% during the 2nd quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC now owns 13,739 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $464,000 after purchasing an additional 4,135 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Halliburton Price Performance

The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $29.69 and its 200-day simple moving average is $31.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 1.62 and a current ratio of 2.21. The company has a market capitalization of $23.93 billion, a PE ratio of 9.57, a P/E/G ratio of 3.61 and a beta of 1.90.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The oilfield services company reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.75 by ($0.02). Halliburton had a net margin of 11.04% and a return on equity of 28.33%. The company had revenue of $5.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.83 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.79 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Halliburton will post 3 earnings per share for the current year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 26th. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 4th will be given a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 4th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.50%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.69%.

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.