UBS Group Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Stock

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) had its price target raised by analysts at UBS Group from $20.00 to $21.00 in a research note issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “neutral” rating on the oilfield services company’s stock. UBS Group’s target price points to a potential downside of 1.15% from the stock’s previous close.

Other equities research analysts have also issued reports about the company. Citigroup dropped their price target on Halliburton from $33.00 to $31.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price target on Halliburton from $28.00 to $24.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on Halliburton from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Barclays dropped their price target on Halliburton from $26.00 to $22.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Finally, Melius Research started coverage on Halliburton in a research note on Wednesday. They set a “buy” rating and a $41.00 price objective for the company. Fourteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Halliburton currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $32.05.

Halliburton Trading Up 0.7%

NYSE HAL opened at $21.2450 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 2.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. Halliburton has a twelve month low of $18.72 and a twelve month high of $32.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.11 billion, a PE ratio of 9.93, a P/E/G ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.12. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $21.63 and its 200 day moving average is $22.42.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 22nd. The oilfield services company reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.55. Halliburton had a return on equity of 21.45% and a net margin of 8.37%.The company had revenue of $5.51 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.43 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.80 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Halliburton will post 2.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of HAL. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Halliburton by 450.9% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 29,941,771 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $759,623,000 after purchasing an additional 24,506,472 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Halliburton in the second quarter worth $109,379,000. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Halliburton by 85.5% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 8,610,870 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $175,490,000 after purchasing an additional 3,969,759 shares during the last quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group raised its stake in shares of Halliburton by 762.7% in the second quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 3,265,132 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $66,543,000 after purchasing an additional 2,886,666 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Halliburton in the first quarter worth $72,637,000. 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.