Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC Reduces Stock Position in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC lowered its stake in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 36.8% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 60,292 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after selling 35,077 shares during the period. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $1,639,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Halliburton by 0.8% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 20,630,361 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $597,234,000 after buying an additional 172,505 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Halliburton by 10.4% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 18,530,937 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $503,856,000 after buying an additional 1,748,763 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its position in shares of Halliburton by 2.1% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,742,352 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $166,815,000 after buying an additional 115,504 shares in the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its position in shares of Halliburton by 22.0% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 5,520,383 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $160,367,000 after buying an additional 995,649 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in shares of Halliburton by 31.3% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 5,100,693 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $138,688,000 after buying an additional 1,214,586 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Halliburton Stock Up 2.3 %

NYSE HAL opened at $25.00 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 2.05 and a quick ratio of 1.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.70 billion, a PE ratio of 8.83, a PEG ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.84. Halliburton has a 1 year low of $23.42 and a 1 year high of $41.56. The business’s 50-day moving average is $26.81 and its 200 day moving average is $28.51.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be paid a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.72%. Halliburton’s payout ratio is presently 24.03%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Halliburton news, CFO Eric Carre sold 141,206 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.13, for a total value of $3,689,712.78. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 127,101 shares in the company, valued at $3,321,149.13. This trade represents a 52.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Margaret Katherine Banks sold 3,900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.04, for a total transaction of $93,756.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 10,551 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $253,646.04. This trade represents a 26.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.61% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Griffin Securities downgraded Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on Halliburton from $42.00 to $37.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Halliburton from $35.00 to $33.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $34.00 target price on shares of Halliburton in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Barclays reduced their target price on Halliburton from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $37.42.

Halliburton 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.