Macquarie Initiates Outperform Rating on Halliburton

In a report published Tuesday, Macquarie Capital analyst Walt Chancellor initiated coverage on

with an Outperform rating and $72.00 price target. Chancellor noted that Halliburton is well positioned for the anticipated North American and global upstream trends due to the company's international growth and strength in unconventionals. The analyst wrote, “As such, we anticipate a fiercely competitive U.S. services market persisting over the medium and long term, and, in this environment, think HAL will emerge as a relative outperformer. Ultimately, in our base case for elevated, but stable, U.S. land activity levels, we believe scale and efficiency will be more reliable drivers of earnings growth. Accordingly, we are encouraged by HAL's continued investment and initiatives around process and technology in U.S. land.” In the near-term, Macquarie sees tight global crude fundamentals supporting international activity. The analyst remains constructive on Brent crude supply and demand dynamics as the company can “flex its capabilities across an improved footprint.” Shares of Halliburton closed at $65.57 on Tuesday.