Morgan Stanley Lowers Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Price Target to $34.00

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) had its price objective trimmed by Morgan Stanley from $35.00 to $34.00 in a research report released on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the oilfield services company’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on shares of Halliburton from $45.00 to $42.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $47.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Evercore ISI cut their target price on Halliburton from $52.00 to $48.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. UBS Group dropped their price target on Halliburton from $41.00 to $37.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, Bank of America cut their price objective on Halliburton from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, October 14th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $40.74.

Halliburton Trading Up 2.6 %

Shares of HAL opened at $31.99 on Monday. Halliburton has a fifty-two week low of $27.26 and a fifty-two week high of $41.56. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $29.37 and a two-hundred day moving average of $32.07. 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 company has a market capitalization of $28.10 billion, a PE ratio of 11.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.75 and a beta of 1.89.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last released its 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 business 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.79 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Halliburton will post 3.01 EPS for the current year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 26th. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 4th will be paid a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 4th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.13%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.69%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Capital World Investors lifted its position in shares of Halliburton by 0.3% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 121,928,734 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $4,806,431,000 after purchasing an additional 377,500 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in Halliburton by 46.0% during the 1st 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. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Halliburton by 0.8% during the 3rd 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 last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Halliburton by 23.1% in the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 20.0% in 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. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.