Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Stock Rating Upgraded by StockNews.com

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) was upgraded by equities researchers at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Tuesday.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on HAL. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Halliburton from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of Halliburton from $47.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on shares of Halliburton from $49.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Halliburton from $46.00 to $48.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Finally, Susquehanna restated 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, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $49.06.

Halliburton Trading Down 1.7 %

Shares of NYSE:HAL opened at $34.03 on Tuesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $36.18 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $36.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 2.12 and a quick ratio of 1.52. Halliburton has a one year low of $31.36 and a one year high of $43.85. The stock has a market capitalization of $30.13 billion, a PE ratio of 11.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.88 and a beta of 1.93.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last issued 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 11.20% and a return on equity of 30.84%. The firm had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.67 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.72 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Halliburton will post 3.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Halliburton

In other Halliburton news, SVP Jill D. Sharp sold 3,346 shares of the firm’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 value of $123,802.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 40,185 shares in the company, valued at $1,486,845. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, SVP Jill D. Sharp sold 3,346 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the senior vice president now owns 40,185 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,486,845. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jeffrey Shannon Slocum sold 38,941 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.92, for a total transaction of $1,437,701.72. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 130,783 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,828,508.36. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 52,287 shares of company stock worth $1,930,704 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Halliburton

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in Halliburton by 46.0% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 61,090,055 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $2,408,171,000 after buying an additional 19,237,784 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Halliburton during the fourth quarter worth $400,070,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Halliburton by 2.7% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 100,274,105 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $3,952,805,000 after buying an additional 2,618,740 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in Halliburton by 24.9% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 7,878,811 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $284,822,000 after buying an additional 1,568,485 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in Halliburton by 116.9% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,483,230 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $97,889,000 after buying an additional 1,338,371 shares during the last quarter. 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.