Halliburton (HAL) Outperforms Broader Market: What You Need to Know

Halliburton (HAL) closed at $37.51 in the latest trading session, marking a +2.68% move from the prior day. The stock exceeded the S&P 500, which registered a gain of 1.15% for the day. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 1.38%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 1.38%.

The provider of drilling services to oil and gas operators's shares have seen an increase of 4.04% over the last month, not keeping up with the Oils-Energy sector's gain of 8.53% and outstripping the S&P 500's loss of 5.69%.

Market participants will be closely following the financial results of Halliburton in its upcoming release. The company's earnings per share (EPS) are projected to be $0.52, reflecting a 13.33% decrease from the same quarter last year. In the meantime, our current consensus estimate forecasts the revenue to be $5.29 billion, indicating a 2.29% decline compared to the corresponding quarter of the prior year.

For the annual period, the Zacks Consensus Estimates anticipate earnings of $2.25 per share and a revenue of $21.7 billion, signifying shifts of -7.02% and -2.17%, respectively, from the last year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Halliburton. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the business and profitability.

Our research demonstrates that these adjustments in estimates directly associate with imminent stock price performance. To take advantage of this, we've established the Zacks Rank, an exclusive model that considers these estimated changes and delivers an operational rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, which varies between #1 (Strong Buy) and #5 (Strong Sell), carries an impressive track record of exceeding expectations, confirmed by external audits, with stocks at #1 delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has remained steady. As of now, Halliburton holds a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

From a valuation perspective, Halliburton is currently exchanging hands at a Forward P/E ratio of 16.27. This valuation marks a discount compared to its industry average Forward P/E of 19.79.

One should further note that HAL currently holds a PEG ratio of 2.19. Comparable to the widely accepted P/E ratio, the PEG ratio also accounts for the company's projected earnings growth. As the market closed yesterday, the Oil and Gas - Field Services industry was having an average PEG ratio of 1.63.

The Oil and Gas - Field Services industry is part of the Oils-Energy sector. With its current Zacks Industry Rank of 35, this industry ranks in the top 15% of all industries, numbering over 250.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to use Zacks.com to monitor all these stock-influencing metrics, and more, throughout the forthcoming trading sessions.

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Halliburton Company (HAL): Free Stock Analysis Report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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