Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Short Interest Up 37.0% in May

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) saw a large increase in short interest in the month of May. As of May 15th, there was short interest totalling 32,080,000 shares, an increase of 37.0% from the April 30th total of 23,420,000 shares. Approximately 3.8% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 14,000,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.3 days.

Insider Activity at Halliburton

In other news, CFO Eric Carre sold 51,179 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 14th. The shares were 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Timothy Mckeon sold 10,497 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.60, for a total value of $258,226.20. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 77,784 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,913,486.40. The trade was a 11.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.56% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Halliburton

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Mascagni Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Halliburton in the 4th quarter worth $28,000. Stone House Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Halliburton in the first quarter valued at about $30,000. Horrell Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Halliburton in the fourth quarter valued at about $33,000. Sierra Ocean LLC purchased a new position in Halliburton in the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. Finally, Hexagon Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Halliburton by 87.4% during the 1st quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,407 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 656 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on HAL. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Halliburton from $29.00 to $26.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Halliburton from $34.00 to $28.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 16th. Susquehanna cut their price target on shares of Halliburton from $32.00 to $30.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on Halliburton from $27.00 to $24.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on Halliburton from $29.00 to $27.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Halliburton has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $33.53.

Halliburton Price Performance

Shares of NYSE HAL opened at $20.43 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $17.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.22, a PEG ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a 50 day moving average of $20.99 and a 200 day moving average of $25.14. Halliburton has a twelve month low of $18.72 and a twelve month high of $37.08. The company has a quick ratio of 1.54, a current ratio of 2.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The oilfield services company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60. The business had revenue of $5.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.28 billion. Halliburton had a return on equity of 26.03% and a net margin of 10.90%. As a group, research analysts expect that Halliburton will post 2.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 25th. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 4th will be given a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 4th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.33%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 28.45%.

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.