Halliburton Company $HAL Shares Sold by Wealthfront Advisers LLC

Wealthfront Advisers LLC lowered its position in Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) by 20.1% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 197,542 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after selling 49,699 shares during the quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $4,860,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in HAL. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in shares of Halliburton by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 5,929,285 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $145,860,000 after purchasing an additional 96,394 shares in the last quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management bought a new stake in shares of Halliburton in the third quarter worth $1,775,000. Tejara Capital Ltd raised its holdings in Halliburton by 98.8% in the third quarter. Tejara Capital Ltd now owns 134,365 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $3,305,000 after acquiring an additional 66,765 shares in the last quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund boosted its stake in Halliburton by 12.8% during the 3rd quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 1,645,526 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $40,480,000 after acquiring an additional 186,105 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Pension Service grew its holdings in Halliburton by 4.2% during the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 1,474,135 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $36,264,000 after acquiring an additional 59,754 shares in the last quarter. 85.23% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Halliburton from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 16th. Capital One Financial boosted their price objective on Halliburton from $25.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Halliburton in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Evercore boosted their price target on Halliburton from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, Zephirin Group lowered Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $30.00 to $28.00 in a research report on Friday, January 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have given a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $34.95.

Halliburton Trading Down 2.1%

Shares of NYSE HAL opened at $34.30 on Friday. Halliburton Company has a 12-month low of $18.72 and a 12-month high of $35.55. The company has a market cap of $28.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.77. The company has a current ratio of 2.04, a quick ratio of 1.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $31.13 and its 200 day simple moving average is $26.47.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 21st. The oilfield services company reported $0.69 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.55 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $5.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.39 billion. Halliburton had a return on equity of 19.77% and a net margin of 5.78%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.73 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Halliburton Company will post 2.64 EPS for the current year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 24th. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 3rd were given a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, December 3rd. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.0%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 45.03%.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Lawrence J. Pope sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.25, for a total transaction of $3,225,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 419,800 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,538,550. The trade was a 19.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Margaret Katherine Banks sold 2,600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.17, for a total value of $88,842.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 14,043 shares in the company, valued at approximately $479,849.31. This represents a 15.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 337,002 shares of company stock valued at $11,445,938. Company insiders own 0.56% of the company’s stock.

Halliburton Company Profile

Halliburton is one of the world’s largest providers of products and services to the energy industry, offering a broad portfolio that supports the lifecycle of oil and gas reservoirs from exploration and drilling through production and abandonment. Founded in 1919 by Erle P. Halliburton as an oil-well cementing company, the firm is headquartered in Houston, Texas and has developed into an integrated oilfield services company serving upstream operators globally.

The company’s activities encompass drilling and evaluation, well construction and completion, production enhancement and well intervention.