Halliburton Company $HAL Stake Reduced by Blair William & Co. IL

Blair William & Co. IL cut its holdings in shares of Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) by 20.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 106,055 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after selling 27,251 shares during the period. Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $2,609,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Halliburton by 7.5% in the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 92,754 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $2,353,000 after acquiring an additional 6,507 shares during the period. Woodline Partners LP increased its stake in shares of Halliburton by 39.0% during the first quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 73,341 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $1,861,000 after acquiring an additional 20,583 shares during the period. Focus Partners Wealth raised its holdings in Halliburton by 25.0% during the first quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 52,045 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $1,320,000 after purchasing an additional 10,408 shares in the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Halliburton by 309.1% during the first quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 68,946 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $1,749,000 after purchasing an additional 52,092 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in Halliburton in the first quarter worth approximately $895,000. 85.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on HAL shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Halliburton from $30.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Rothschild & Co Redburn boosted their price objective on Halliburton from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 18th. Capital One Financial upped their price objective on Halliburton from $25.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Wall Street Zen raised Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, March 8th. Finally, Evercore boosted their price target on shares of Halliburton from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $35.38.

Insider Activity

In other Halliburton news, VP Timothy Mckeon sold 3,846 shares of Halliburton stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.37, for a total transaction of $132,187.02. Following the transaction, the vice president owned 81,631 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,805,657.47. The trade was a 4.50% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Lawrence J. Pope sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.25, for a total value of $3,225,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 419,800 shares in the company, valued at $13,538,550. This represents a 19.24% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders sold 331,994 shares of company stock worth $11,331,187. Corporate insiders own 0.56% of the company’s stock.

Halliburton Stock Down 3.0%

Shares of NYSE:HAL opened at $34.87 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $33.85 and a 200 day simple moving average of $28.34. Halliburton Company has a 52 week low of $18.72 and a 52 week high of $37.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 1.51 and a current ratio of 2.04. The company has a market cap of $29.20 billion, a PE ratio of 23.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 0.73.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 21st. The oilfield services company reported $0.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.55 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $5.66 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.39 billion. Halliburton had a net margin of 5.78% and a return on equity of 19.77%. The company’s revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.73 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Halliburton Company will post 2.64 earnings per share for the current year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 25th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 4th will be given a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 4th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.0%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 45.03%.

About Halliburton

Halliburton is one of the world’s largest providers of products and services to the energy industry, offering a broad portfolio that supports the lifecycle of oil and gas reservoirs from exploration and drilling through production and abandonment. Founded in 1919 by Erle P. Halliburton as an oil-well cementing company, the firm is headquartered in Houston, Texas and has developed into an integrated oilfield services company serving upstream operators globally.

The company’s activities encompass drilling and evaluation, well construction and completion, production enhancement and well intervention.