Halliburton’s (HAL) Buy Rating Reiterated at Benchmark

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by stock analysts at Benchmark in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $45.00 price objective on the oilfield services company’s stock. Benchmark’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 16.40% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other equities analysts also recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group boosted their target price on Halliburton from $46.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Halliburton from $47.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Halliburton from $46.00 to $48.00 in a research note on Tuesday. Raymond James cut their price objective on Halliburton from $49.00 to $47.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, Susquehanna reiterated a “positive” rating and set a $49.00 target price on shares of Halliburton in a research report on Monday, April 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Halliburton has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $48.59.

Halliburton Price Performance

Shares of HAL traded up $0.07 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $38.66. 3,419,399 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 7,098,513. 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 52-week low of $27.84 and a 52-week high of $43.85. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $37.66 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $37.39. The company has a market cap of $34.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 2.00.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 11.46% and a return on equity of 31.59%. The business had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.67 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.72 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Halliburton will post 3.42 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Halliburton

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Halliburton

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Halliburton during the fourth quarter worth about $400,070,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings 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 worth $284,822,000 after purchasing an additional 1,568,485 shares during the period. Sourcerock Group LLC grew its stake in Halliburton by 237.6% during the third quarter. Sourcerock Group LLC now owns 1,677,194 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $67,926,000 after buying an additional 1,180,406 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC lifted its position in Halliburton by 51.2% during the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,539,062 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $91,787,000 after acquiring an additional 859,440 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

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.