Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Upgraded at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Monday morning.

HAL has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Raymond James dropped their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $49.00 to $47.00 and set a strong-buy rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Halliburton from $49.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Halliburton from $44.00 to $48.00 in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Halliburton from $55.00 to $54.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, Susquehanna reaffirmed a positive rating and set a $49.00 target price on shares of Halliburton in a research note on Monday, April 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Buy and an average target price of $48.82.

Halliburton Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of HAL opened at $38.72 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 2.06, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. Halliburton has a 12-month low of $27.84 and a 12-month high of $43.85. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $37.75 and a 200 day moving average price of $37.40. The firm has a market capitalization of $34.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.22, a P/E/G ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 2.00.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The oilfield services company reported $0.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.02. Halliburton had a net margin of 11.46% and a return on equity of 31.59%. The firm had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.67 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.72 earnings per share. Halliburton’s quarterly revenue was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Halliburton will post 3.42 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Halliburton

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Rise Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Halliburton in the 1st quarter valued at about $26,000. Ancora Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Halliburton by 443.8% during the 3rd quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 881 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 719 shares during the last quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Halliburton during the 4th quarter valued at about $33,000. Ogorek Anthony Joseph NY ADV increased its stake in shares of Halliburton by 1,134.6% during the 3rd quarter. Ogorek Anthony Joseph NY ADV now owns 1,000 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 919 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Princeton Global Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Halliburton during the 4th quarter valued at about $36,000. 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.