Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Given Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) has received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty analysts that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and fourteen have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $37.42.

HAL has been the topic of a number of research reports. Raymond James downgraded Halliburton from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on Halliburton from $42.00 to $37.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on Halliburton from $43.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 3rd. UBS Group downgraded Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $36.00 to $34.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $34.00 target price on shares of Halliburton in a report on Thursday, January 23rd.

Halliburton Price Performance

NYSE HAL opened at $24.75 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $21.48 billion, a PE ratio of 8.74, a PEG ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.84. Halliburton has a 1 year low of $23.42 and a 1 year high of $41.56. The company has a current ratio of 2.05, a quick ratio of 1.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $26.32 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $28.06.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be paid a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.75%. Halliburton’s payout ratio is presently 24.03%.

Insider Activity at Halliburton

In other Halliburton news, VP Timothy Mckeon sold 10,497 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.60, for a total value of $258,226.20. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 77,784 shares in the company, valued at $1,913,486.40. This trade represents a 11.89 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Eric Carre sold 141,206 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.13, for a total transaction of $3,689,712.78. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 127,101 shares in the company, valued at $3,321,149.13. This represents a 52.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 206,782 shares of company stock worth $5,321,170. 0.61% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Halliburton

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of HAL. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 24.5% during the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 947,191 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $27,516,000 after acquiring an additional 186,538 shares during the period. KBC Group NV lifted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 43.0% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 79,190 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $2,300,000 after acquiring an additional 23,805 shares during the period. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 8.9% during the 3rd quarter. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 8,795 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $255,000 after acquiring an additional 717 shares during the period. CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 8.1% during the 3rd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 128,895 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $3,744,000 after acquiring an additional 9,611 shares during the period. Finally, Quest Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 2,418.9% during the 3rd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 78,387 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $2,277,000 after acquiring an additional 75,275 shares during the period. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.