Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Given New $37.00 Price Target at Stifel Nicolaus

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) had its price objective reduced by Stifel Nicolaus from $42.00 to $37.00 in a report published on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. Stifel Nicolaus currently has a buy rating on the oilfield services company’s stock.

HAL has been the topic of several other reports. Raymond James downgraded shares of Halliburton from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on Halliburton from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Susquehanna cut their target price on Halliburton from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 8th. UBS Group cut Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $36.00 to $34.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Griffin Securities lowered shares of Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $37.42.

Halliburton Price Performance

Shares of Halliburton stock opened at $28.05 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $24.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.77, a P/E/G ratio of 3.72 and a beta of 1.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 1.62 and a current ratio of 2.21. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $28.89 and its 200 day moving average is $30.04. Halliburton has a one year low of $25.51 and a one year high of $41.56.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The oilfield services company reported $0.73 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $5.70 billion for 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%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.79 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Halliburton will post 2.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 26th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 4th were paid a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 4th. Halliburton’s payout ratio is 23.69%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Halliburton

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of HAL. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in 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 period. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 10.4% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 18,530,937 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $503,856,000 after acquiring an additional 1,748,763 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in shares of Halliburton by 2.1% during the 3rd 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 worth $166,815,000 after purchasing an additional 115,504 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its holdings in Halliburton by 22.0% during the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 5,520,383 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $160,367,000 after purchasing an additional 995,649 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in Halliburton by 244.5% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 4,513,560 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $138,025,000 after purchasing an additional 3,203,224 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.