Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Receives "Buy" Rating from Benchmark

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "buy" rating reissued by equities research analysts at Benchmark in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $40.00 price objective on the oilfield services company's stock. Benchmark's target price suggests a potential upside of 36.85% from the company's current price.

A number of other equities analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Bank of America lowered their price target on Halliburton from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on shares of Halliburton from $46.00 to $40.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $45.00 to $35.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Halliburton from $46.00 to $39.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Halliburton from $48.00 to $47.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Halliburton presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $40.79.

Halliburton Stock Performance

NYSE:HAL traded down $0.32 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $29.23. The company had a trading volume of 9,477,764 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,046,279. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 2.13 and a quick ratio of 1.54. Halliburton has a 1-year low of $27.26 and a 1-year high of $41.56. The business's 50 day moving average price is $29.17 and its 200-day moving average price is $32.62. The firm has a market cap of $25.81 billion, a PE ratio of 9.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 1.89.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The oilfield services company reported $0.73 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.75 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $5.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.83 billion. Halliburton had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 29.97%. The firm's quarterly revenue was down 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.79 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Halliburton will post 3.12 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in HAL. Capital World Investors increased its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 377,500 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Halliburton by 2.7% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 100,274,105 shares of the oilfield services company's stock worth $3,952,805,000 after buying an additional 2,618,740 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 46.0% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 61,090,055 shares of the oilfield services company's stock worth $2,408,171,000 after buying an additional 19,237,784 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position in Halliburton by 17,317.6% in the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 13,631,188 shares of the oilfield services company's stock valued at $460,462,000 after acquiring an additional 13,552,927 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in Halliburton by 20.0% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 10,087,115 shares of the oilfield services company's stock valued at $340,752,000 after acquiring an additional 1,681,620 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.