Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Price Target Cut to $39.00

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) had its target price lowered by Wells Fargo & Company from $46.00 to $39.00 in a report issued on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an overweight rating on the oilfield services company’s stock.

HAL has been the subject of a number of other reports. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $41.00 to $37.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Evercore ISI decreased their price target on shares of Halliburton from $52.00 to $48.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $47.00 to $46.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Benchmark reaffirmed a buy rating and issued a $42.00 target price on shares of Halliburton in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut Halliburton from an outperform rating to a sector perform rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $44.00 to $37.00 in a report on Friday, September 13th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $42.56.

Halliburton Stock Up 3.0 %

Shares of HAL stock opened at $28.65 on Wednesday. Halliburton has a 52-week low of $27.52 and a 52-week high of $43.85. The stock has a market cap of $25.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.91, a PEG ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.89. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $30.82 and its 200-day moving average is $34.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 1.54 and a current ratio of 2.13.

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

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 25th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th were given a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.37%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.53%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Van H. Beckwith sold 10,000 shares of Halliburton stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.75, for a total value of $367,500.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 273,908 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,066,119. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Halliburton

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Capital World Investors lifted its stake in Halliburton by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 121,928,734 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $4,806,431,000 after purchasing an additional 377,500 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Halliburton by 2.7% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 100,274,105 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $3,952,805,000 after acquiring an additional 2,618,740 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 46.0% during the 1st 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 acquiring an additional 19,237,784 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in Halliburton by 17,317.6% during the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 13,631,188 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $460,462,000 after acquiring an additional 13,552,927 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Halliburton by 20.0% in the 2nd 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 in the last quarter. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.