Evercore ISI Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Stock Price

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL - Free Report) had its price objective cut by Evercore ISI from $43.00 to $35.00 in a research note published on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the oilfield services company's stock.

HAL has been the subject of several other reports. Piper Sandler started coverage on Halliburton in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. They set an "overweight" rating and a $36.00 price target for the company. Susquehanna reduced their target price on shares of Halliburton from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a "positive" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Raymond James lowered shares of Halliburton from a "strong-buy" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Griffin Securities lowered shares of Halliburton from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Halliburton from $35.00 to $33.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $38.26.

Halliburton Price Performance

NYSE HAL traded up $0.37 on Wednesday, hitting $29.28. The company had a trading volume of 8,386,033 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,290,593. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 2.21 and a quick ratio of 1.62. The company's fifty day moving average price is $28.93 and its 200-day moving average price is $30.19. The company has a market capitalization of $25.72 billion, a PE ratio of 10.20, a PEG ratio of 3.36 and a beta of 1.91. Halliburton has a 12-month low of $25.51 and a 12-month high of $41.56.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL - Get Free Report) last released 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). Halliburton had a return on equity of 28.33% and a net margin of 11.04%. The company had revenue of $5.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.83 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.79 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Halliburton will post 2.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 26th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 4th were given a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 4th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.32%. Halliburton's dividend payout ratio is presently 23.69%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Halliburton

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of HAL. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of 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 worth $460,462,000 after purchasing an additional 13,552,927 shares in the last quarter. 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 valued at $138,025,000 after purchasing an additional 3,203,224 shares during the last quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC acquired a new stake in Halliburton during the 3rd quarter worth $55,132,000. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its stake 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 worth $160,367,000 after purchasing an additional 995,649 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Halliburton by 127.2% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,557,130 shares of the oilfield services company's stock valued at $52,600,000 after purchasing an additional 871,789 shares during the period. 85.23% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.