Halliburton, Liberty Energy rise 5% after Wells Fargo upgrades
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Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) +5.7% and Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) +5.3% in Wednesday's trading, as Wells Fargo upgraded shares of both oilfield services providers to Overweight from Equal Weight, with respective price targets of $52 and $24, anticipating further upside to oilfield activity.
"Macroeconomic headwinds may persist, but energy security and overall global oil and gas supply challenges - sanctions and lack of spare capacity - have created a sustained undersupply situation, which should sustain commodity prices and upstream investment," according to Wells Fargo's Roger Read.
Elsewhere in the oilfield services sector, the analyst maintained Overweight ratings for Schlumberger (SLB) and Chart Industries (GTLS), but downgraded Baker Hughes (BKR) to Equal Weight and kept NOV Inc. (NOV) at Underweight.
Both Halliburton (HAL) and Liberty (LBRT) recently reported Q3 adjusted earnings and sales that beat Wall Street estimates (I, II).