Commonwealth Equity Services LLC Reduces Stock Holdings in Halliburton Company $HAL

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC lowered its position in Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) by 11.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 152,058 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after selling 19,590 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $4,297,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Halliburton during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,054,000. Impala Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Halliburton during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $2,091,000. Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Halliburton during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,010,000. Caprock Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Halliburton during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,579,000. Finally, QV Investors Inc. purchased a new stake in Halliburton in the fourth quarter valued at $3,195,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have commented on HAL. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Halliburton in a research report on Friday, April 10th. Argus lifted their target price on Halliburton from $39.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. Capital One Financial lifted their target price on Halliburton from $41.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 20th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Halliburton from $35.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Halliburton from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Eighteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Halliburton currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $43.27.

Insider Activity at Halliburton

In other Halliburton news, insider Michael Casey Maxwell sold 20,348 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.89, for a total transaction of $852,377.72. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 93,763 shares in the company, valued at $3,927,732.07. This represents a 17.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, VP Timothy Mckeon sold 8,655 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.00, for a total transaction of $363,510.00. Following the sale, the vice president owned 72,976 shares in the company, valued at $3,064,992. This trade represents a 10.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last three months, insiders sold 416,991 shares of company stock valued at $16,846,948. 0.57% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Halliburton Trading Down 0.2%

Shares of NYSE HAL opened at $39.12 on Monday. Halliburton Company has a twelve month low of $20.09 and a twelve month high of $43.59. The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 1.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $39.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $34.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $32.68 billion, a PE ratio of 21.49, a PEG ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 0.70.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 21st. The oilfield services company reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by $0.05. Halliburton had a return on equity of 19.04% and a net margin of 6.95%.The business had revenue of $5.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.37 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.60 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down .3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Halliburton Company will post 2.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 24th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 3rd. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.7%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is 37.36%.

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.