Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Downgraded by Griffin Securities to “Neutral”

Griffin Securities downgraded shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday, Marketbeat reports.

HAL has been the topic of several other research reports. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Halliburton from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Dbs Bank began coverage on shares of Halliburton in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. They set a “buy” rating and a $45.00 target price for the company. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on Halliburton from $45.00 to $42.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on Halliburton from $47.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Raymond James reduced their target price on Halliburton from $41.00 to $37.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 8th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $39.58.

Halliburton Stock Performance

NYSE:HAL opened at $25.97 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $29.35 and its 200-day moving average is $31.02. The company has a market cap of $22.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.05, a PEG ratio of 3.61 and a beta of 1.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 1.62 and a current ratio of 2.21. Halliburton has a 52-week low of $25.51 and a 52-week high of $41.56.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The oilfield services company reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $5.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.83 billion. Halliburton had a net margin of 11.04% and a return on equity of 28.33%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.79 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Halliburton will post 3 earnings per share for the current year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 26th. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 4th. Halliburton’s payout ratio is currently 23.69%.

Institutional Trading of Halliburton

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of HAL. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Halliburton by 0.8% in 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 purchasing an additional 172,505 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Halliburton by 23.1% in the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 16,782,174 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $487,522,000 after acquiring an additional 3,150,986 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in 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 valued at $340,752,000 after purchasing an additional 1,681,620 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 83,894 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its stake in shares of Halliburton by 2.1% in the 3rd 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 valued at $166,815,000 after purchasing an additional 115,504 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.