Halliburton Company $HAL Shares Sold by Colonial Trust Advisors

Colonial Trust Advisors cut its position in Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) by 11.7% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 44,589 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after selling 5,904 shares during the period. Colonial Trust Advisors’ holdings in Halliburton were worth $1,131,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of HAL. ORG Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 13,675.2% in the first quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 17,219 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $440,000 after purchasing an additional 17,094 shares in the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC grew its position in shares of Halliburton by 33.6% during the first quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 159,533 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $4,047,000 after buying an additional 40,109 shares in the last quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Halliburton by 22.9% during the first quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 128,351 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $3,256,000 after buying an additional 23,887 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Halliburton by 2.5% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,780,057 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $70,530,000 after buying an additional 67,704 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its position in shares of Halliburton by 754.5% during the first quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 824,549 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $20,671,000 after buying an additional 728,059 shares in the last quarter. 85.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

HAL has been the subject of several analyst reports. Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of Halliburton from $33.00 to $31.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Halliburton from $34.00 to $28.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 16th. Susquehanna lowered their price target on Halliburton from $30.00 to $27.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 23rd. UBS Group lowered their price target on Halliburton from $21.00 to $20.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Halliburton to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Halliburton presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $31.00.

Halliburton Stock Up 1.1%

Halliburton stock opened at $21.35 on Tuesday. Halliburton Company has a twelve month low of $18.72 and a twelve month high of $32.57. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $21.68 and a two-hundred day moving average of $22.47. The company has a current ratio of 2.00, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.98, a PEG ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.12.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 22nd. The oilfield services company reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.55. Halliburton had a return on equity of 21.45% and a net margin of 8.37%. The firm had revenue of $5.51 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.43 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.80 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Halliburton Company will post 2.64 earnings per share for the current year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 24th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 3rd will be paid a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.2%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 3rd. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 31.78%.

About Halliburton

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.