Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Lowered to Sector Perform at Royal Bank of Canada

Royal Bank of Canada lowered shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) from an outperform rating to a sector perform rating in a research report sent to investors on Friday, Marketbeat reports. They currently have $37.00 target price on the oilfield services company’s stock, down from their previous target price of $44.00.

HAL has been the subject of several other research reports. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on shares of Halliburton from $52.00 to $48.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of Halliburton from $50.00 to $45.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Bank of America lowered their price target on shares of Halliburton from $41.00 to $40.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. StockNews.com lowered shares of Halliburton from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Halliburton from $47.00 to $45.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $43.88.

Halliburton Stock Up 1.9 %

HAL stock opened at $28.41 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 2.13 and a quick ratio of 1.54. Halliburton has a 1-year low of $27.52 and a 1-year high of $43.85. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $31.80 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $35.00. The firm has a market cap of $25.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.83, a PEG ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 1.89.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last released its earnings results on Friday, July 19th. The oilfield services company reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.80. Halliburton had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 29.97%. The firm had revenue of $5.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.95 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.77 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Halliburton will post 3.14 EPS for the current year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 25th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th will be issued a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.39%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 4th. Halliburton’s payout ratio is 23.53%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Halliburton

In other Halliburton news, EVP Van H. Beckwith sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.75, for a total transaction of $367,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 273,908 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,066,119. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.61% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Halliburton

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Capital World Investors lifted its stake in Halliburton by 0.3% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 121,928,734 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $4,806,431,000 after buying an additional 377,500 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted 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 valued at $3,952,805,000 after buying an additional 2,618,740 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted 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 valued at $2,408,171,000 after buying an additional 19,237,784 shares in the last quarter. Sanders Capital LLC lifted its stake in Halliburton by 3.4% during 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 buying an additional 782,093 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Halliburton by 17,317.6% during the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 13,631,188 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $460,462,000 after buying an additional 13,552,927 shares in the last quarter. 85.23% of the stock is 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.