Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) CFO Sells $3,689,712.78 in Stock

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) CFO Eric Carre sold 141,206 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.13, for a total transaction of $3,689,712.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 127,101 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,321,149.13. This trade represents a 52.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link.

Halliburton Stock Down 1.8 %

NYSE HAL traded down $0.49 on Wednesday, reaching $26.01. The company had a trading volume of 4,122,506 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,948,826. 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 1 year low of $25.16 and a 1 year high of $41.56. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $27.52 and a 200-day moving average of $29.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.85 billion, a PE ratio of 9.19, a P/E/G ratio of 3.53 and a beta of 1.89.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 26th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 4th were paid a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, December 4th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.61%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.03%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Halliburton

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in HAL. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Halliburton by 0.8% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 20,630,361 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $597,234,000 after buying an additional 172,505 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Halliburton by 10.4% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 18,530,937 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $503,856,000 after purchasing an additional 1,748,763 shares in the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC lifted its position in shares of 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 during the last quarter. Amundi grew its stake in Halliburton by 22.2% in the fourth 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. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in Halliburton in the fourth quarter valued at about $299,986,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Susquehanna reduced their price objective on Halliburton from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 8th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $39.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Halliburton from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Halliburton from $35.00 to $33.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of Halliburton from $42.00 to $37.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Halliburton currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $37.42.

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.