Prospera Financial Services Inc Reduces Stake in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Prospera Financial Services Inc trimmed its holdings in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 21.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 13,857 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after selling 3,825 shares during the period. Prospera Financial Services Inc’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $403,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Cary Street Partners Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 56.5% during the 3rd quarter. Cary Street Partners Asset Management LLC now owns 157,085 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $4,563,000 after purchasing an additional 56,707 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board raised its stake in shares of Halliburton by 146.0% during the 2nd quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 842,355 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $28,455,000 after buying an additional 500,000 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its position in shares of Halliburton by 105.2% during the 2nd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 186,961 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $6,316,000 after buying an additional 95,864 shares in the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC grew its stake in Halliburton by 2,418.9% in the 3rd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 78,387 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $2,277,000 after acquiring an additional 75,275 shares during the period. Finally, Semanteon Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in Halliburton in the 3rd quarter worth $1,181,000. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on Halliburton from $47.00 to $46.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on Halliburton from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 18th. Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $40.00 target price on shares of Halliburton in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered shares of Halliburton from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $44.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Finally, UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $41.00 to $37.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $40.74.

Halliburton Price Performance

Halliburton stock opened at $31.94 on Monday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $29.45 and its 200-day simple moving average is $31.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 1.62 and a current ratio of 2.21. Halliburton has a 1 year low of $27.26 and a 1 year high of $41.56. The company has a market capitalization of $28.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.92 and a beta of 1.89.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The oilfield services company reported $0.73 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by ($0.02). Halliburton had a return on equity of 28.33% and a net margin of 11.04%. The firm had revenue of $5.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.83 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.79 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Halliburton will post 3.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 26th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 4th will be given a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.13%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 4th. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.69%.

Halliburton Company Profile

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.