Benchmark Cuts Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Price Target to $35.00

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) had its price objective trimmed by Benchmark from $40.00 to $35.00 in a research report released on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a buy rating on the oilfield services company’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on HAL. Bank of America reduced their price target on shares of Halliburton from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Halliburton from $35.00 to $33.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Griffin Securities lowered Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Raymond James downgraded shares of Halliburton from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Halliburton presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $37.42.

Halliburton Stock Down 0.5 %

HAL opened at $27.83 on Thursday. Halliburton has a twelve month low of $25.51 and a twelve month high of $41.56. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $28.81 and a 200 day moving average price of $29.99. The company has a quick ratio of 1.62, a current ratio of 2.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The company has a market cap of $24.45 billion, a PE ratio of 9.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.58 and a beta of 1.91.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The oilfield services company reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.75 by ($0.02). Halliburton had a return on equity of 26.03% and a net margin of 10.90%. The firm had revenue of $5.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.83 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.79 earnings per share. Halliburton’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Halliburton will post 2.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 26th. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 4th were given a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 4th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.44%. Halliburton’s payout ratio is currently 24.03%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in HAL. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. boosted its position in shares of Halliburton by 440.5% during the second quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. now owns 2,227 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $75,000 after buying an additional 1,815 shares during the last quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Halliburton by 77.6% during the second quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,863 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $367,000 after purchasing an additional 4,746 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. boosted its stake in Halliburton by 34.6% during the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 201,100 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $6,793,000 after buying an additional 51,679 shares during the period. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc grew its stake in shares of Halliburton by 13.0% during the second quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc now owns 204,922 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $6,922,000 after buying an additional 23,608 shares during the last quarter. Finally, 1832 Asset Management L.P. lifted its position in shares of Halliburton by 14,105.3% during the second quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 67,475 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $2,279,000 after purchasing an additional 67,000 shares during the last quarter. 85.23% of the stock is currently 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.