Halliburton CEO Dave Lesar flagged further lay-offs for 2015 in what he predicted would be a “tough” year, but remained bullish about the company and said many of its business lines would be strengthened through its acquisition of Baker Hughes, which is expected to close in the second half of this year.

RBC Capital was the most optimistic, upgrading Halliburton shares from a sector perform rating to an outperform rating on Tuesday, but Citigroup Global Hunter Securities and Howard Weil either cut their price target or downgraded the stock.

Halliburton’s last earnings data release on December 20 reported $US1.19 EPS (earnings per share) for the quarter, beating the Thomson Reuters consensus estimate of $1.10. The company’s oil field services player had revenue of $8.70 billion for the quarter, which also beat the consensus estimate of $8.52 billion.

Its quarterly revenue was up 16.4% on a year-on-year basis and analysts expect it to post $3.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Global Hunter downgraded Halliburton shares from a ‘buy’ rating to a ‘neutral’ rating on December 23, with a $42 price target on the stock, down from $60.

Citigroup analysts, meanwhile, cut their price target on Halliburton shares from $68 to $50 on December 19 and now have a ‘buy’ rating on the stock.

Howard Weil also downgraded Halliburton shares from a sector outperform rating to a sector perform rating on December 17 and now has a $46 price target on the stock.

Seven equities research analysts have rated Halliburton’s stock with a ‘hold’ rating, 23 have assigned a ‘buy’ rating and 1 has given a ‘strong buy’ rating. The consensus rating is buy, with an average price target of $68.17.

Halliburton has a market capitalisation of $33.33 billion.