We recently published a list of the Analyst Says These 10 Stocks Can Benefit if Donald Trump Wins US Election 2024. Since Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) ranks 8th on the list, it deserves a deeper look.
Wolfe Research said in a note earlier this month that the odds have shifted in favor of Donald Trump following the first presidential debate. However, the firm believes we can see several “unexpected twists and turns” ahead. Wolfe Research also shared a list of stocks that could be potential winners should Donald Trump become the President of the US.
What could happen if Donald Trump becomes President of the US has been a topic of debate and discussion on Wall Street over the past several months. In late January, when the Russell 2000 index jumped, Zhiwei Ren, portfolio manager at Penn Mutual Asset Management, reportedly said that investors might be flocking to the “Trump Trade.” The Russell 2000 is a small-cap U.S. stock market index that makes up the smallest 2,000 stocks in the Russell 3000 Index. Ren said, according to Wall Street Journal, that since Trump is a supporter of low interest rates and less regulation, small-cap stocks, which thrive under Dovish economic policies, were reacting positively to the increasing chances of Donald Trump becoming the leading Republican candidate for the upcoming elections.
In this article, we first scanned Wolfe Research’s basket of stocks the firm believes could be potential winners in case of a Trump presidency. From these stocks we picked 10 companies with the highest number of hedge fund investors.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 38
Wolfe Research believes oil services company Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) could be the potential winner if Donald Trump comes to the White House. Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) bulls believe the company is set to benefit from the increase in activity in the energy industry. Halliburton’s moat when compared to peers like Schlumberger and Baker Hughes is its strong market share in North America. As of 2023, North America accounted for about 45% of its total revenue, compared with 20% for Schlumberger and 26% for Baker Hughes. However, Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) believes the rise of shale and frac operations could boost its business prospects in the long term.
The company believes West Africa and the North Sea could be areas of strength in 2025 and beyond. Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) is also expanding into offshore operations, artificial lift systems, and production chemicals in addition to hydraulic fracturing. Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) ZEUS platform is also gaining popularity. It integrates electrification, automation, and subsurface diagnostics to reduce costs and improve operational efficiency. Another significant development is Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) SmartFleet fracture monitoring system, an automated solution for real-time subsurface measurement.
Average analyst price estimate on the stock is $47, which presents a 42% upside potential from the current levels.
Carillon Eagle Mid Cap Growth Fund stated the following regarding Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) in its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter:
“Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) provides equipment and services to the global energy industry. The company’s shares underperformed during the quarter, largely due to downward pressure on crude oil and natural gas prices. Despite this recent move, ongoing discipline among North American shale producers could continue supporting relatively healthy activity growth at current commodity price levels, which should provide stability to service providers such as Haliburton. The company is also poised to benefit from the ongoing, multi-year international and offshore upstream investment cycle that is less dependent on short-term swings in commodity prices.”
Overall, Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) ranks 8th on Insider Monkey’s list titled Analyst Says These 10 Stocks Can Benefit if Donald Trump Wins US Election 2024. While we acknowledge the potential of Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL), our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.