Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Stock Price Down 0.3%

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) traded down 0.3% on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $36.21 and last traded at $36.26. 970,590 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 86% from the average session volume of 6,694,074 shares. The stock had previously closed at $36.37.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on HAL shares. UBS Group raised their price objective on Halliburton from $46.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Citigroup raised their price objective on Halliburton from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Halliburton from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. StockNews.com lowered Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Halliburton from $46.00 to $48.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $48.59.

Halliburton Stock Performance

The company has a fifty day moving average price of $38.45 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $36.85. The firm has a market cap of $31.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.91 and a beta of 2.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 2.12 and a quick ratio of 1.52.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The oilfield services company reported $0.76 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.02. Halliburton had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 30.84%. The firm had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.67 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.72 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Halliburton will post 3.39 EPS for the current year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 26th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 5th will be given a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.88%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 5th. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.53%.

Insider Activity at Halliburton

In related news, SVP Jill D. Sharp sold 3,346 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.00, for a total transaction of $123,802.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 40,185 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,486,845. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other Halliburton news, CEO Jeffrey Allen Miller sold 377,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.30, for a total value of $13,308,100.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 759,015 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,793,229.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Jill D. Sharp sold 3,346 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.00, for a total value of $123,802.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 40,185 shares in the company, valued at $1,486,845. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 434,287 shares of company stock valued at $15,415,304. Company insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Halliburton

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in Halliburton by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 121,928,734 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $4,806,431,000 after purchasing an additional 377,500 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Halliburton by 2.7% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 100,274,105 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $3,952,805,000 after purchasing an additional 2,618,740 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in Halliburton by 46.0% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 61,090,055 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $2,408,171,000 after purchasing an additional 19,237,784 shares during the period. Sanders Capital LLC boosted its stake in Halliburton by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 23,538,783 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $850,927,000 after purchasing an additional 782,093 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in Halliburton during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $400,070,000. Institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

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.