Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Shares Sold by Blair William & Co. IL

Blair William & Co. IL cut its holdings in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 62.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 109,175 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after selling 180,953 shares during the quarter. Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $2,968,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of HAL. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in shares of Halliburton by 244.5% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 4,513,560 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $138,025,000 after purchasing an additional 3,203,224 shares during the period. Amundi increased its stake in Halliburton by 22.2% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 13,068,025 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $353,242,000 after buying an additional 2,378,043 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Halliburton by 10.4% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 18,530,937 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $503,856,000 after acquiring an additional 1,748,763 shares during the last quarter. OFI Invest Asset Management purchased a new stake in shares of Halliburton during the 4th quarter worth about $32,683,000. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in Halliburton by 31.3% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 5,100,693 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $138,688,000 after acquiring an additional 1,214,586 shares in the last quarter. 85.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have weighed in on HAL. Evercore ISI cut their target price on Halliburton from $43.00 to $35.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Benchmark reduced their target price on Halliburton from $40.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Raymond James downgraded Halliburton from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $42.00 to $37.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Griffin Securities downgraded shares of Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $37.37.

Insider Activity

In other Halliburton news, Director Margaret Katherine Banks sold 3,900 shares of Halliburton 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $253,646.04. This trade represents a 26.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Eric Carre sold 141,206 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.13, for a total transaction of $3,689,712.78. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 127,101 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,321,149.13. The trade was a 52.63 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 206,782 shares of company stock worth $5,321,170. Corporate insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

Halliburton Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of HAL stock opened at $25.37 on Tuesday. Halliburton has a one year low of $23.42 and a one year high of $41.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 2.05 and a quick ratio of 1.54. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $25.89 and a 200 day moving average price of $27.93. The stock has a market cap of $22.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.84.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th were issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.68%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 5th. Halliburton’s payout ratio is 24.03%.

Halliburton 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.