Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Sees Large Decline in Short Interest

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) saw a large decrease in short interest in October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 21,820,000 shares, a decrease of 6.2% from the October 15th total of 23,270,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 9,250,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.4 days. Currently, 2.5% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on HAL. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Halliburton from $46.00 to $39.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $52.00 to $48.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 22nd. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Halliburton from $41.00 to $37.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target on shares of Halliburton from $47.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $40.74.

Halliburton Stock Up 2.6 %

HAL stock opened at $30.45 on Tuesday. Halliburton has a 1-year low of $27.26 and a 1-year high of $41.56. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $29.18 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $32.12. The company has a current ratio of 2.21, a quick ratio of 1.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. The stock has a market cap of $26.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.61, a P/E/G ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 1.89.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last announced its quarterly 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 company had revenue of $5.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.83 billion. Halliburton had a net margin of 11.04% and a return on equity of 28.33%. Halliburton’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.79 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Halliburton will post 3.02 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Halliburton

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in HAL. Country Trust Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Halliburton during the third quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of Halliburton by 274.9% during the second quarter. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC now owns 1,121 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 822 shares in the last quarter. Continuum Advisory LLC boosted its holdings in Halliburton by 101.2% in the third quarter. Continuum Advisory LLC now owns 1,388 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 698 shares in the last quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in Halliburton in the 3rd quarter worth about $44,000. Finally, Crewe Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Halliburton during the first quarter valued at approximately $46,000. 85.23% of the stock is owned by 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.