Van Beckwith Sells 8,854 Shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Stock

Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) EVP Van Beckwith sold 8,854 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.89, for a total value of $246,938.06. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 333,528 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,302,095.92. This represents a 2.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink.

Halliburton Trading Down 1.2%

HAL traded down $0.35 during trading on Monday, reaching $28.11. The company had a trading volume of 7,045,989 shares, compared to its average volume of 13,248,354. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $25.73 and its 200 day simple moving average is $23.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 1.43 and a current ratio of 1.95. The company has a market cap of $23.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.59 and a beta of 0.81. Halliburton Company has a 12-month low of $18.72 and a 12-month high of $30.40.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 21st. The oilfield services company reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.50 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $5.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.39 billion. Halliburton had a net margin of 5.91% and a return on equity of 20.12%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.73 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Halliburton Company will post 2.64 earnings per share for the current year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 24th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 3rd will be issued a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 3rd. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is presently 45.03%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Allworth Financial LP boosted its position in shares of Halliburton by 16.0% during the third quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 15,762 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $388,000 after buying an additional 2,177 shares during the period. Groupama Asset Managment raised its position in Halliburton by 3.0% during the third quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 1,619,865 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $39,849,000 after acquiring an additional 47,002 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. acquired a new stake in Halliburton in the 3rd quarter valued at about $2,900,000. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in Halliburton by 25.4% in the 3rd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 22,963 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $565,000 after acquiring an additional 4,645 shares during the period. Finally, Danske Bank A S acquired a new stake in shares of Halliburton during the 3rd quarter worth about $2,898,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on HAL shares. Melius Research assumed coverage on Halliburton in a report on Wednesday, August 20th. They set a “buy” rating and a $41.00 price target on the stock. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Halliburton from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Halliburton in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Rothschild Redb upgraded Halliburton to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 3rd. Finally, Redburn Partners set a $35.00 target price on shares of Halliburton in a research report on Monday, November 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $31.55.

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.