Halliburton Company $HAL Shares Sold by Perpetual Ltd

Key Points

• Perpetual Ltd reduced its Halliburton stake by 6.4%, selling 83,456 shares and retaining 1.23 million shares worth approximately $39.1 million. Hedge funds and other institutions collectively own 85.23% of HAL.
• Analyst sentiment remains favorable, with 18 Buy, six Hold, and one Sell rating; the stock has a “Moderate Buy” consensus and an average price target of $43.24.
• Halliburton recently exceeded quarterly earnings and revenue expectations, reporting $0.55 in adjusted EPS and $5.71 billion in revenue. The company also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.17 per share, representing a 2.1% yield.

Perpetual Ltd cut its stake in shares of Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL - Free Report) by 6.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,230,711 shares of the oilfield services company's stock after selling 83,456 shares during the period. Perpetual Ltd owned about 0.15% of Halliburton worth $39,137,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of Halliburton during the second quarter valued at about $2,812,327,000. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Halliburton by 4.5% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 56,870,444 shares of the oilfield services company's stock worth $1,930,752,000 after purchasing an additional 2,463,137 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in Halliburton by 4.0% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 9,502,988 shares of the oilfield services company's stock worth $370,556,000 after purchasing an additional 367,701 shares in the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC bought a new stake in Halliburton in the 2nd quarter worth about $345,941,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new stake in Halliburton in the 2nd quarter valued at about $337,486,000. 85.23% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

HAL has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. TD Cowen dropped their target price on shares of Halliburton from $48.00 to $47.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. BMO Capital Markets set a $37.00 target price on Halliburton in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Wall Street Zen lowered Halliburton from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, October 3rd. Piper Sandler raised Halliburton from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and increased their price target for the company from $40.00 to $43.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price target on Halliburton from $55.00 to $53.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Eighteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $43.24.

Insider Activity at Halliburton

In related news, COO Jeffrey Slocum sold 52,572 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.09, for a total value of $1,844,751.48. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 118,730 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,166,235.70. This represents a 30.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Company insiders own 0.57% of the company's stock.

Halliburton Stock Performance

Shares of HAL stock opened at $32.54 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $27.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.04, a P/E/G ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 1.50 and a current ratio of 2.02. Halliburton Company has a 52 week low of $21.46 and a 52 week high of $43.59. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $34.15 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $36.33.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 21st. The oilfield services company reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.01. Halliburton had a net margin of 7.16% and a return on equity of 18.71%. The firm had revenue of $5.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $5.50 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.55 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Halliburton Company will post 2.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 23rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 2nd were issued a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 2nd. Halliburton's payout ratio is 35.60%.

Halliburton Company Profile

Halliburton Company NYSE: HAL is a global provider of products and services for the energy industry. The company supports the exploration, development, and production of oil and natural gas through technologies and services used throughout the life cycle of a well.

Halliburton operates through two primary business segments: Completion and Production, and Drilling and Evaluation. Its offerings include cementing, stimulation, well completion, production enhancement, drilling services, drilling fluids, well testing, wireline and perforating services, formation evaluation, and project management.

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