Capital Analysts LLC Cuts Stock Position in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Capital Analysts LLC cut its holdings in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 5.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 10,200 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after selling 600 shares during the quarter. Capital Analysts LLC’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $277,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Sanders Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 24,372,694 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $662,694,000 after acquiring an additional 375,054 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Halliburton by 4.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 21,538,632 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $584,139,000 after purchasing an additional 908,271 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Halliburton by 10.4% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 18,530,937 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $503,856,000 after purchasing an additional 1,748,763 shares during the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC raised its holdings in Halliburton by 15.6% during the fourth quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 16,093,680 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $437,587,000 after purchasing an additional 2,171,722 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi boosted its position in shares of Halliburton by 22.2% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 13,068,025 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $353,242,000 after purchasing an additional 2,378,043 shares in the last quarter. 85.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $23.00 to $22.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Halliburton from $29.00 to $27.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Benchmark reduced their price target on Halliburton from $40.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on Halliburton from $37.00 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Halliburton from $35.00 to $33.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $34.68.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Halliburton news, Director Margaret Katherine Banks sold 3,900 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.04, for a total transaction of $93,756.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 10,551 shares in the company, valued at $253,646.04. This represents a 26.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Eric Carre sold 51,179 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.00, for a total value of $1,279,475.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 127,101 shares in the company, valued at $3,177,525. The trade was a 28.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 206,782 shares of company stock valued at $5,321,170. 0.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Halliburton Stock Performance

Halliburton stock opened at $20.86 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $23.74 and its 200-day simple moving average is $26.75. The company has a market cap of $17.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 2.05 and a quick ratio of 1.54. Halliburton has a fifty-two week low of $18.72 and a fifty-two week high of $38.89.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The oilfield services company reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.60. The business had revenue of $5.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.28 billion. Halliburton had a return on equity of 26.03% and a net margin of 10.90%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Halliburton will post 2.64 EPS for the current year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th were given a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 5th. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is currently 28.45%.

Halliburton Company Profile

Halliburton Company provides products and services to the energy industry worldwide. It operates through two segments, Completion and Production, and Drilling and Evaluation. The Completion and Production segment offers production enhancement services that include stimulation and sand control services; cementing services, such as well bonding and casing, and casing equipment; and completion tools that offer downhole solutions and services, including well completion products and services, intelligent well completions, and service tools, as well as liner hanger, sand control, and multilateral systems.