Benchmark Reaffirms Buy Rating for Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Benchmark reissued their buy rating on shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) in a report issued on Monday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a $42.00 price target on the oilfield services company’s stock.

HAL has been the topic of several other research reports. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on Halliburton from $45.00 to $44.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $49.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Halliburton from $46.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of Halliburton from $50.00 to $49.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on Halliburton from $47.00 to $46.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $45.53.

Halliburton Trading Up 3.6 %

Shares of NYSE HAL opened at $34.18 on Monday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $34.53 and its 200-day moving average price is $36.05. Halliburton has a fifty-two week low of $32.60 and a fifty-two week high of $43.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 1.54 and a current ratio of 2.13. The company has a market cap of $30.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.83, a PEG ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.93.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last issued its earnings results on Friday, July 19th. The oilfield services company reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.80. Halliburton had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 29.97%. The firm had revenue of $5.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.95 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.77 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Halliburton will post 3.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 26th. Stockholders 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.99%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.53%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Halliburton news, EVP Van H. Beckwith sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.75, for a total transaction of $367,500.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 273,908 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,066,119. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Halliburton news, EVP Van H. Beckwith sold 10,000 shares of Halliburton stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.75, for a total transaction of $367,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 273,908 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,066,119. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Jill D. Sharp sold 3,346 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.00, for a total value of $123,802.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 40,185 shares in the company, valued at $1,486,845. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 62,287 shares of company stock worth $2,298,204 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Halliburton

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Rise Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Halliburton in the first quarter worth $26,000. IAG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Halliburton during the 1st quarter worth about $30,000. Johnson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Halliburton during the 4th quarter valued at about $33,000. Princeton Global Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Halliburton in the 4th quarter valued at about $36,000. Finally, First United Bank & Trust purchased a new stake in shares of Halliburton in the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. 85.23% of the stock is 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.