Halliburton Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:HAL)

Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) saw unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Traders purchased 66,638 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 128% compared to the typical daily volume of 29,288 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently commented on HAL. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of Halliburton from $28.00 to $26.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Halliburton from $25.00 to $27.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. UBS Group boosted their target price on Halliburton from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. HSBC set a $30.00 target price on Halliburton and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Susquehanna boosted their target price on Halliburton from $27.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Sixteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $31.00.

Institutional Trading of Halliburton

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in HAL. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Halliburton during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Stone House Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Halliburton in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Halliburton by 547.3% during the 2nd quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 1,586 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 1,341 shares during the period. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Halliburton by 111.9% during the 2nd quarter. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 1,704 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 900 shares during the period. Finally, Hexagon Capital Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Halliburton by 87.4% in the 1st quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,407 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 656 shares during the period. 85.23% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Halliburton Stock Performance

Shares of HAL stock opened at $26.30 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 2.00, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $22.86 and a 200 day moving average price of $21.73. The company has a market cap of $22.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.41 and a beta of 1.02. Halliburton has a 12 month low of $18.72 and a 12 month high of $32.57.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 21st. The oilfield services company reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.50 by $0.08. Halliburton had a net margin of 5.91% and a return on equity of 20.00%. The company had revenue of $5.60 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.39 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.73 earnings per share. Halliburton’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Halliburton will post 2.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 24th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 3rd were paid a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.6%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 3rd. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is currently 31.78%.

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.