Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Cut to Neutral at Griffin Securities

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) was downgraded by Griffin Securities from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday, Marketbeat Ratings reports.

HAL has been the subject of a number of other reports. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on Halliburton from $45.00 to $42.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 11th. Dbs Bank initiated coverage on shares of Halliburton in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. They set a “buy” rating and a $45.00 price target for the company. Benchmark restated a “buy” rating and issued a $40.00 price objective on shares of Halliburton in a report on Friday, November 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on shares of Halliburton from $47.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Raymond James decreased their price target on Halliburton from $41.00 to $37.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $39.58.

Halliburton Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of HAL opened at $25.97 on Friday. Halliburton has a 12-month low of $25.51 and a 12-month high of $41.56. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.05, a P/E/G ratio of 3.61 and a beta of 1.90. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $29.35 and a 200 day moving average price of $31.00. The company has a current ratio of 2.21, a quick ratio of 1.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74.

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Halliburton

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Cary Street Partners Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Halliburton by 56.5% in the 3rd quarter. Cary Street Partners Asset Management LLC now owns 157,085 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $4,563,000 after buying an additional 56,707 shares during the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 146.0% during the second quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 842,355 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $28,455,000 after purchasing an additional 500,000 shares during the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its position in shares of Halliburton by 105.2% during the second quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 186,961 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $6,316,000 after purchasing an additional 95,864 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Halliburton by 23.1% in the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 16,782,174 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $487,522,000 after purchasing an additional 3,150,986 shares during the period. Finally, Quest Partners LLC increased its position in Halliburton by 2,418.9% during the third quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 78,387 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $2,277,000 after buying an additional 75,275 shares during the period. 85.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.