Griffin Securities Downgrades Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) to Neutral

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

Several other brokerages have also recently commented on HAL. Royal Bank of Canada cut shares of Halliburton from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $44.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Piper Sandler assumed coverage on shares of Halliburton in a report on Thursday. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $36.00 price target for the company. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on shares of Halliburton from $47.00 to $46.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Susquehanna decreased their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on shares of Halliburton from $47.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $39.58.

Halliburton Stock Performance

HAL stock opened at $25.77 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.62, a current ratio of 2.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. Halliburton has a twelve month low of $25.66 and a twelve month high of $41.56. The company has a market cap of $22.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.61 and a beta of 1.90. The business’s fifty day moving average is $29.45 and its 200-day moving average is $31.08.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The oilfield services company reported $0.73 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $5.70 billion during 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%. Halliburton’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.79 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Halliburton will post 3 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Halliburton

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Halliburton by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 20,630,361 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $597,234,000 after purchasing an additional 172,505 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Halliburton by 23.1% in the third 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. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Halliburton by 20.0% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 10,087,115 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $340,752,000 after buying an additional 1,681,620 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in Halliburton by 1.2% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 7,342,857 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $248,042,000 after buying an additional 83,894 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its position in shares of Halliburton by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,742,352 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $166,815,000 after acquiring an additional 115,504 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

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.