Prudential Financial Inc. Sells 123,647 Shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Prudential Financial Inc. decreased its position in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 20.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 481,323 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after selling 123,647 shares during the period. Prudential Financial Inc. owned about 0.05% of Halliburton worth $13,087,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Halliburton by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 20,630,361 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $597,234,000 after acquiring an additional 172,505 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its stake 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 purchasing an additional 1,748,763 shares during the last quarter. Amundi grew its stake in shares of Halliburton by 22.2% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 13,068,025 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $353,242,000 after purchasing an additional 2,378,043 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its holdings in Halliburton by 2.1% during the 3rd 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 valued at $166,815,000 after purchasing an additional 115,504 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Halliburton by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,435,299 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $147,786,000 after purchasing an additional 187,150 shares during the last quarter. 85.23% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently issued reports on HAL. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on Halliburton from $42.00 to $37.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. UBS Group lowered shares of Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the company from $36.00 to $34.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Evercore ISI decreased their price target on shares of Halliburton from $43.00 to $35.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on Halliburton from $43.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $37.42.

Halliburton Stock Down 1.4 %

Shares of Halliburton stock opened at $25.33 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $26.08 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $27.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.99 billion, a PE ratio of 8.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.84. Halliburton has a 52-week low of $23.42 and a 52-week high of $41.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 1.54 and a current ratio of 2.05.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 5th were given a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.68%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.03%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Halliburton

In other news, Director Margaret Katherine Banks sold 3,900 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.04, for a total transaction of $93,756.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 10,551 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $253,646.04. The trade was a 26.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Eric Carre sold 141,206 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.13, for a total transaction of $3,689,712.78. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 127,101 shares in the company, valued at $3,321,149.13. This represents a 52.63 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 206,782 shares of company stock worth $5,321,170. Insiders own 0.61% 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.