Shares of Halliburton Co. HAL, +0.73% rallied 1.7% toward a near three-year high in premarket trading Thursday, after J.P. Morgan analyst Arun Jayaram turned bullish on the oil services company, given its position as a leader in scale, flexibility and technology and its “best-in-class” returns generated in the last cycle. Jayaram raised his rating to overweight, after being at neutral since March 2020, while lifting the stock price target to $32 from $30. “[Halliburton] is the largest most liquid [North America]-levered [oil field services] stocks to completion activity,” Jayaram wrote in a note to clients. “With an improving supply-demand balance in the NAM pressure pumping market, we think Halliburton is primed to benefit from its leading position and realize net pricing gains.” The stock, which is on track to open at the highest levels seen during regular-session hours since May 2019, has rallied 12.1% over the past three months through Wednesday, while the SPDR Energy Select Sector ETF XLE, +0.19% has climbed 12.4% and the S&P 500 SPX, +0.28% has gained 8.3%.
