Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) Given Average Rating of "Moderate Buy" by Analysts

Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL - Get Free Report) has been given an average rating of "Moderate Buy" by the twenty-one ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $33.47.

Several research analysts have weighed in on the company. UBS Group lowered their target price on Halliburton from $22.00 to $21.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $32.00 to $31.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Halliburton to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Halliburton from $34.00 to $28.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 16th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price objective on Halliburton from $33.00 to $31.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 24th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Halliburton

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of HAL. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 450.9% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 29,941,771 shares of the oilfield services company's stock valued at $759,623,000 after buying an additional 24,506,472 shares during the period. Sanders Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of Halliburton by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 24,372,694 shares of the oilfield services company's stock worth $662,694,000 after buying an additional 375,054 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Halliburton by 4.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 21,538,632 shares of the oilfield services company's stock valued at $584,139,000 after acquiring an additional 908,271 shares during the period. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC grew its stake in Halliburton by 15.6% during the 4th quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 16,093,680 shares of the oilfield services company's stock worth $437,587,000 after buying an additional 2,171,722 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Halliburton during the fourth quarter worth about $299,986,000. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Halliburton Stock Performance

Shares of HAL opened at $21.23 on Monday. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $21.15 and its 200-day simple moving average is $23.37. The firm has a market cap of $18.25 billion, a PE ratio of 8.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.35 and a beta of 1.13. Halliburton has a 12-month low of $18.72 and a 12-month high of $34.97. The company has a current ratio of 1.98, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 22nd. The oilfield services company reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.60. Halliburton had a net margin of 9.31% and a return on equity of 24.01%. The company had revenue of $5.42 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.28 billion. As a group, equities analysts predict that Halliburton will post 2.64 EPS for the current year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 25th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 4th were paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 4th. Halliburton's dividend payout ratio is currently 28.45%.

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.