Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Downgraded to “Hold” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report issued on Wednesday.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $46.00 to $48.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. TD Cowen upped their target price on shares of Halliburton from $47.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Halliburton from $46.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. Susquehanna reiterated a positive rating and issued a $49.00 target price on shares of Halliburton in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Halliburton from $50.00 to $45.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 28th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Halliburton presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $48.75.

Halliburton Trading Up 0.5 %

NYSE:HAL opened at $33.78 on Wednesday. Halliburton has a one year low of $32.35 and a one year high of $43.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 2.12 and a quick ratio of 1.52. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $35.69 and its 200 day simple moving average is $36.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $29.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.69, a PEG ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.93.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The oilfield services company reported $0.76 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.74 by $0.02. Halliburton had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 30.84%. The business had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.67 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.72 earnings per share. Halliburton’s quarterly revenue was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Halliburton will post 3.37 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 5th were issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 5th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.01%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.53%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Halliburton

In other Halliburton news, SVP Jill D. Sharp sold 3,346 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.00, for a total transaction of $123,802.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 40,185 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,486,845. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, insider Jeffrey Shannon Slocum sold 38,941 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.92, for a total value of $1,437,701.72. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 130,783 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,828,508.36. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Jill D. Sharp sold 3,346 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.00, for a total transaction of $123,802.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 40,185 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,486,845. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 52,287 shares of company stock valued at $1,930,704. Insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Halliburton

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of HAL. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in shares of Halliburton by 15.4% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 2,905,089 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $117,684,000 after purchasing an additional 388,079 shares in the last quarter. JT Stratford LLC bought a new position in shares of Halliburton during the third quarter worth $235,000. Seven Eight Capital LP bought a new position in shares of Halliburton during the third quarter worth $444,000. Scotia Capital Inc. boosted its position in shares of Halliburton by 39.0% during the third quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 11,522 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $467,000 after acquiring an additional 3,234 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Baker Avenue Asset Management LP boosted its position in shares of Halliburton by 8.9% during the third quarter. Baker Avenue Asset Management LP now owns 58,235 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $2,359,000 after acquiring an additional 4,782 shares during the last quarter. 85.23% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.