Van Beckwith Sells 198,349 Shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Stock

Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) EVP Van Beckwith sold 198,349 shares of Halliburton stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.29, for a total transaction of $8,189,830.21. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 146,186 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,036,019.94. This represents a 57.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Halliburton Trading Up 0.4%

NYSE HAL opened at $42.97 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 1.54 and a current ratio of 2.08. The firm has a market cap of $35.90 billion, a PE ratio of 23.61, a P/E/G ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 0.73. Halliburton Company has a one year low of $19.38 and a one year high of $43.37. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $38.59 and its two-hundred day moving average is $33.38.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 21st. The oilfield services company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $5.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.37 billion. Halliburton had a net margin of 6.95% and a return on equity of 19.04%. Halliburton’s quarterly revenue was down .3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.60 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Halliburton Company will post 2.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

HAL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Argus boosted their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $39.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. Evercore upgraded shares of Halliburton from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $42.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, March 20th. Zephirin Group upped their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 22nd. Susquehanna upped their price target on shares of Halliburton from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 7th. Finally, Barclays raised shares of Halliburton from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $37.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Eighteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $42.45.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in Halliburton by 21.1% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 110,220,971 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $3,114,848,000 after acquiring an additional 19,190,520 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 50,825,761 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $1,436,336,000 after acquiring an additional 861,964 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 31,097,164 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $878,806,000 after acquiring an additional 443,064 shares during the period. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its position in Halliburton by 82,596.0% in the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 29,771,388 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $841,339,000 after buying an additional 29,735,387 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sanders Capital LLC grew its position in Halliburton by 9.4% in the 3rd quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 26,004,682 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $639,715,000 after buying an additional 2,238,983 shares in the last quarter. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Halliburton Company Profile

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.