Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Stock Price Breaks Above 200 Day Moving Average – Here’s What Happened

Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL)’s stock price passed above its two hundred day moving average during trading on Wednesday. The stock has a two hundred day moving average of $35.71 and traded as high as $36.03. Halliburton shares last traded at $35.7330, with a volume of 12,501,300 shares traded.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on HAL. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $43.00 price target on shares of Halliburton in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Halliburton in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. BMO Capital Markets set a $37.00 target price on shares of Halliburton in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Finally, Freedom Broker raised shares of Halliburton from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $37.00 to $40.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 22nd. Eighteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Halliburton currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $43.86.

Halliburton Price Performance

The company has a current ratio of 2.02, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. The firm has a market cap of $29.93 billion, a PE ratio of 15.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.83. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $34.27 and a 200-day simple moving average of $35.75.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 20th. The oilfield services company reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $5.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.58 billion. Halliburton had a net margin of 8.90% and a return on equity of 18.36%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.58 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Halliburton Company will post 2.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 23rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 2nd were given a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 2nd. Halliburton’s payout ratio is currently 28.45%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Halliburton news, COO Jeffrey Slocum sold 52,572 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.09, for a total transaction of $1,844,751.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 118,730 shares in the company, valued at $4,166,235.70. This trade represents a 30.69% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 0.57% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of HAL. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in Halliburton during the second quarter valued at $2,812,327,000. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 4.5% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 56,870,444 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $1,930,752,000 after buying an additional 2,463,137 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 4.0% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 9,502,988 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $370,556,000 after buying an additional 367,701 shares during the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Halliburton during the 2nd quarter valued at about $345,941,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Halliburton during the 2nd quarter valued at about $337,486,000. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Halliburton

Halliburton Company (NYSE: HAL) is a global provider of products and services for the energy industry. The company supports the exploration, development, and production of oil and natural gas through technologies and services used throughout the life cycle of a well.

Halliburton operates through two primary business segments: Completion and Production, and Drilling and Evaluation. Its offerings include cementing, stimulation, well completion, production enhancement, drilling services, drilling fluids, well testing, wireline and perforating services, formation evaluation, and project management.