Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Stock Holdings Lowered by VeraBank N.A.

VeraBank N.A. decreased its stake in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 5.1% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 20,978 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after selling 1,125 shares during the period. VeraBank N.A.’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $570,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in HAL. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in Halliburton by 244.5% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 4,513,560 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $138,025,000 after buying an additional 3,203,224 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 23.1% in the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 16,782,174 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $487,522,000 after buying an additional 3,150,986 shares during the last quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC bought a new position in shares of Halliburton in the 3rd quarter valued at about $55,132,000. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in 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 valued at $138,688,000 after buying an additional 1,214,586 shares during the period. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its position in Halliburton by 22.0% during 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 purchasing an additional 995,649 shares during the period. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Halliburton Stock Performance

NYSE HAL opened at $26.16 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $27.30 and its 200-day moving average price is $29.15. The company has a market cap of $22.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.24, a P/E/G ratio of 3.53 and a beta of 1.89. 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 has a fifty-two week low of $25.16 and a fifty-two week high of $41.56.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.60%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.03%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Halliburton

In other news, CFO Eric Carre sold 141,206 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.13, for a total transaction of $3,689,712.78. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 127,101 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,321,149.13. This trade represents a 52.63 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.61% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

HAL has been the subject of several analyst reports. Benchmark dropped their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $40.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $43.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Griffin Securities cut shares of Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $34.00 target price on shares of Halliburton in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on Halliburton from $35.00 to $33.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $37.42.

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.