Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Price Target Cut to $34.00 by Analysts at Wells Fargo & Company

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL - Free Report) had its price target decreased by Wells Fargo & Company from $39.00 to $34.00 in a research note released on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an overweight rating on the oilfield services company's stock.

Other equities analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Halliburton from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Royal Bank of Canada cut Halliburton from an "outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $44.00 to $37.00 in a report on Friday, September 13th. Barclays decreased their price objective on Halliburton from $47.00 to $43.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 8th. UBS Group cut Halliburton from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $36.00 to $34.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on Halliburton from $45.00 to $42.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 11th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Halliburton has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $40.32.

Halliburton Price Performance

Halliburton stock traded down $0.68 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $27.20. 12,766,364 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,154,399. 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 business's 50 day simple moving average is $29.63 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $31.16. The company has a market capitalization of $23.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.48, a PEG ratio of 3.61 and a beta of 1.90. Halliburton has a 12-month low of $27.03 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). The company had revenue of $5.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $5.83 billion. Halliburton had a return on equity of 28.33% and a net margin of 11.04%. The business's quarterly revenue was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.79 EPS. Analysts forecast that Halliburton will post 3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 26th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.50%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 4th. Halliburton's dividend payout ratio is presently 23.69%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 172,505 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Halliburton by 23.1% during the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 16,782,174 shares of the oilfield services company's stock worth $487,522,000 after acquiring an additional 3,150,986 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Halliburton by 20.0% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 10,087,115 shares of the oilfield services company's stock worth $340,752,000 after acquiring an additional 1,681,620 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in shares of Halliburton by 1.2% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 7,342,857 shares of the oilfield services company's stock worth $248,042,000 after acquiring an additional 83,894 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its position in shares of Halliburton by 2.1% during the third 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 acquiring an additional 115,504 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.23% of the company's stock.

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.