Oppenheimer Upgrades Halliburton (HAL)

Oppenheimer & Co. is upgrading shares of Halliburton Company HAL to Outperform from Perform, and establishing its $42 price target. In a research report, Oppenheimer writes, "We are upgrading HAL from Perform to Outperform and establishing a $42 price target based on 15x our 2011 EPS estimate. HAL has underperformed in the last month, especially relative to SLB, and we believe a reversion to the mean is likely for the stock. We think HAL is shielded from large liabilities related to the Macondo spill and that pressure pumping (and other North America service) margins can continue to expand into the end of 2011, implying further potential upside to our 2011/12 EPS estimates. We think recent price weakness is a good opportunity to establish a position in the stock." Shares of HAL gained 18 cents on Friday to close at $31.86, a gain of 0.6%.