By
Dave Mock
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More Articles
April 10, 2008
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Every day, the sun rises on Wall Street, and a plethora of professional analysts wake to issue new opinions on stocks. Here at the Fool, we examine some of these picks -- and the track record of the firm behind them -- to help individual Fools make better investing decisions.
In addition to following professional banks, anyone can use Motley Fool CAPS to monitor the collective opinions of more than 96,000 investors -- many of whom actually demonstrate better investing insight than published analysts.
Global contract oil and gas services firm Halliburton (NYSE: HAL ) has had enough top-performing CAPS investors turn bullish on the stock recently to upgrade it from the four-star ranking it's held for most of the last six months to a maximum five stars. More than 2,000 investors have weighed in with an opinion on Halliburton, with lots of resources in CAPS to give investors information behind the recent upturn in outlook.
With its new focus serving independent oil and gas companies, Halliburton is landing many new contracts for its services in developing nations eager to tap precious reserves and profit from high-priced oil. After spinning out its politically maligned construction services business into KBR (NYSE: KBR ) , the company has done well by looking abroad, even as it and peers Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB ) and Baker Hughes (NYSE: BHI ) took a measured hit in North American operations.
Many CAPS investors see macroeconomic factors pushing Halliburton higher, though. With global demand for energy still looking bright, oil prices now topping $110 a barrel have investors seeing profits up and down the petroleum value chain, from companies like ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM ) and Chevron (NYSE: CVX ) straight back to Halliburton and friends. Icing keeps getting heaped on this cake, too -- Brazilian customer Petrobras' (NYSE: PBR ) Tupi project is gushing with higher reserve estimates that will mean more work for drillers for years.
To see more of what the very best CAPS analysts are saying now about Halliburton -- and discover the other winning stocks they're picking -- head on over to CAPS and have a look. Unlike the fees investors must pay for timely access to professional analysts' opinions, the community research and resources on CAPS are totally free.
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