Zacks Likes Halliburton

Halliburton Spin-Off Positive.

Seeing Halliburton's (NYSE: HAL) latest moves as positive steps, Zacks senior oil & gas industry analyst Sheraz Mian is keeping his Buy recommendation in place on the company. From his most recent update:

'The KBR spin-off and an increased push in the Eastern Hemisphere through a headquarters in Dubai are both positive developments. The spin-off of the high volume, low margin KBR business removes distractions, improves operational focus, and makes Halliburton a pure-play on the oilfield service market.

'We believe this will aid valuation by narrowing down, if not altogether eliminating, its valuation discount relative to Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB) and other large-cap peers. Our Buy recommendation remains unchanged as we continue to view Halliburton as a core oilfield service holding.

'Management is targeting industry-leading revenue, earnings, and returns performance metrics over the next few years, highlighting the breadth and depth of the company's oilfield franchise. Our unchanged price objective of $44 is based on 2007 P/E and EV/EBITDA [enterprise value-to-earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization] multiples of 17.0x and 9.2x, still below most of its large-cap peers.'