Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Price Target Cut to $41.00 by Analysts at Jefferies Financial Group

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) had its price objective cut by Jefferies Financial Group from $43.00 to $41.00 in a research note published on Friday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the oilfield services company’s stock.

HAL has been the topic of several other reports. Bank of America lowered their price objective on Halliburton from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Halliburton from $39.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Halliburton from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 18th. Barclays reiterated an “equal weight” rating and set a $33.00 target price (down previously from $43.00) on shares of Halliburton in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $45.00 to $42.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 11th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $38.95.

Halliburton Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of HAL stock opened at $27.68 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $24.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 1.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 2.21 and a quick ratio of 1.62. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $29.02 and a 200 day moving average price of $30.53. Halliburton has a one year low of $25.51 and a one year high of $41.56.

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

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 26th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 4th were issued 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 2.46%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.69%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Halliburton by 0.8% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 20,630,361 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $597,234,000 after buying an additional 172,505 shares during 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 worth $487,522,000 after purchasing an additional 3,150,986 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 1,681,620 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its holdings in Halliburton by 2.1% in the third 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 purchasing an additional 115,504 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its stake in Halliburton by 22.0% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 5,520,383 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $160,367,000 after buying an additional 995,649 shares during the period. 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.