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

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) was downgraded by StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued on Friday.

A number of other analysts have also commented on HAL. UBS Group lifted their target price on Halliburton from $44.00 to $48.00 in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating and issued a $49.00 price objective on shares of Halliburton in a report on Tuesday, February 13th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on Halliburton from $49.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Raymond James cut their price objective on Halliburton from $49.00 to $47.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, Barclays cut their price objective on Halliburton from $55.00 to $54.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $48.63.

Halliburton Stock Up 1.5 %

Shares of Halliburton stock traded up $0.59 on Friday, reaching $39.42. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 5,828,649 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,877,908. The company has a market capitalization of $35.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.45, a P/E/G ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.99. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $36.07 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $37.57. Halliburton has a 52 week low of $27.84 and a 52 week high of $43.85. The company has a quick ratio of 1.48, a current ratio of 2.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 23rd. The oilfield services company reported $0.86 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.80 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $5.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.78 billion. Halliburton had a return on equity of 31.59% and a net margin of 11.46%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.72 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Halliburton will post 3.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Halliburton

In other 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $26,793,229.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Halliburton news, CEO Jeffrey Allen Miller sold 377,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 759,015 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,793,229.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Margaret Katherine Banks sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Halliburton

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 121,551,234 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $4,394,077,000 after purchasing an additional 479,877 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 15.6% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 41,852,271 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $1,512,961,000 after purchasing an additional 5,660,862 shares during the period. Sanders Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 23,538,783 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $850,927,000 after purchasing an additional 782,093 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 1.5% in the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 18,691,333 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $590,048,000 after purchasing an additional 271,718 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 65.5% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 17,217,776 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $677,520,000 after purchasing an additional 6,815,373 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.