161,102 Shares in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Bought by Jefferies Financial Group Inc.

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 161,102 shares of the oilfield services company's stock, valued at approximately $4,380,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Horrell Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Halliburton during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Sierra Ocean LLC purchased a new stake in Halliburton during the 4th quarter valued at $36,000. Blume Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in Halliburton by 33.3% during the 4th quarter. Blume Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,600 shares of the oilfield services company's stock valued at $44,000 after buying an additional 400 shares during the period. Wingate Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Halliburton during the 4th quarter valued at $52,000. Finally, Quent Capital LLC raised its holdings in Halliburton by 261.1% during the 4th quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 2,246 shares of the oilfield services company's stock valued at $61,000 after buying an additional 1,624 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.23% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Halliburton news, CFO Eric Carre sold 51,179 shares of Halliburton stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.00, for a total transaction of $1,279,475.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 127,101 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,177,525. The trade was a 28.71% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Margaret Katherine Banks sold 3,900 shares of Halliburton 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 sale, the director now owns 10,551 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $253,646.04. The trade was a 26.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 65,576 shares of company stock valued at $1,631,457. Insiders own 0.61% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on shares of Halliburton from $37.00 to $32.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Halliburton from $33.00 to $31.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Halliburton to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $23.00 to $22.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, Susquehanna decreased their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $32.00 to $30.00 and set a "positive" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $33.53.

Halliburton Stock Up 1.0%

Shares of Halliburton stock traded up $0.21 on Friday, reaching $21.25. The stock had a trading volume of 13,147,109 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,458,061. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $22.27 and a 200 day moving average price of $25.97. The company has a quick ratio of 1.54, a current ratio of 2.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. Halliburton has a 1 year low of $18.72 and a 1 year high of $38.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.51, a P/E/G ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.19.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 22nd. The oilfield services company reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts' consensus estimates of $0.60. The firm had revenue of $5.42 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.28 billion. Halliburton had a net margin of 10.90% and a return on equity of 26.03%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Halliburton will post 2.64 EPS for the current 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.