Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Stock Position Lowered by Plato Investment Management Ltd

Plato Investment Management Ltd lessened its position in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 22.3% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 23,903 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after selling 6,863 shares during the period. Plato Investment Management Ltd’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $694,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of HAL. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC raised its position in shares of Halliburton by 274.9% during the second quarter. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC now owns 1,121 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 822 shares during the period. Crewe Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Halliburton during the first quarter worth $46,000. Country Trust Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Halliburton during the third quarter worth $36,000. Beacon Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Halliburton by 28.8% during the first quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,382 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $54,000 after purchasing an additional 309 shares during the period. Finally, ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Halliburton during the third quarter worth $44,000. Institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on HAL. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on Halliburton from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price target on shares of Halliburton in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on Halliburton from $47.00 to $46.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on Halliburton from $47.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Halliburton from $45.00 to $35.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $40.79.

Halliburton Stock Performance

HAL opened at $30.13 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $26.47 billion, a PE ratio of 10.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.70 and a beta of 1.89. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $29.10 and a 200-day moving average of $32.31. Halliburton has a 52-week low of $27.26 and a 52-week high of $41.56. 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 (NYSE:HAL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The oilfield services company reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.75 by ($0.02). Halliburton had a return on equity of 28.33% and a net margin of 11.04%. The company had revenue of $5.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.83 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.79 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Halliburton will post 3.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.