Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Shares Gap Down Following Weak Earnings

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) gapped down before the market opened on Tuesday following a weaker than expected earnings announcement. The stock had previously closed at $21.92, but opened at $20.12. Halliburton shares last traded at $19.83, with a volume of 4,393,948 shares.

The oilfield services company reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60. The company had revenue of $5.42 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.28 billion. Halliburton had a return on equity of 26.03% and a net margin of 10.90%.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors 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 yield of 3.28%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 5th. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.03%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

HAL has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $30.00 to $29.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 31st. Raymond James cut Halliburton from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on Halliburton from $43.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on Halliburton from $42.00 to $37.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Evercore ISI dropped their price target on shares of Halliburton from $43.00 to $35.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $36.95.

Insider Transactions at Halliburton

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 value of $93,756.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 10,551 shares in the company, valued at $253,646.04. The trade was a 26.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Eric Carre sold 51,179 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.00, for a total value of $1,279,475.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 127,101 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,177,525. This represents a 28.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 206,782 shares of company stock worth $5,321,170 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Halliburton

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of HAL. Sanders Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 24,372,694 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $662,694,000 after acquiring an additional 375,054 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Halliburton by 4.4% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 21,538,632 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $584,139,000 after purchasing an additional 908,271 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Halliburton by 10.4% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 18,530,937 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $503,856,000 after buying an additional 1,748,763 shares during the period. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC grew its stake in shares of Halliburton by 15.6% in the fourth quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 16,093,680 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $437,587,000 after buying an additional 2,171,722 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi raised its holdings in shares of 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. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Halliburton Trading Down 5.5 %

The company has a 50 day moving average of $24.07 and a 200-day moving average of $26.98. The stock has a market cap of $17.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 1.54 and a current ratio of 2.05.

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.