Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Sells 12,472 Shares of Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lessened its stake in Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL - Free Report) by 6.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 178,441 shares of the oilfield services company's stock after selling 12,472 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC's holdings in Halliburton were worth $4,527,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Mascagni Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Halliburton in the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Horrell Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in Halliburton in the fourth quarter worth about $33,000. Vermillion Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Halliburton during the 4th quarter valued at about $39,000. Blume Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc increased its position in shares of Halliburton by 830.5% during the 1st quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 2,047 shares of the oilfield services company's stock valued at $52,000 after purchasing an additional 1,827 shares during the last quarter. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Halliburton Price Performance

HAL stock traded up $0.37 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $20.63. The company's stock had a trading volume of 9,827,978 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,296,853. The company has a quick ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69. Halliburton Company has a 12 month low of $18.72 and a 12 month high of $37.08. The company has a 50 day moving average of $20.87 and a two-hundred day moving average of $24.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.14.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The oilfield services company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts' consensus estimates of $0.60. The firm had revenue of $5.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.28 billion. Halliburton had a net margin of 9.31% and a return on equity of 24.01%. On average, analysts expect that Halliburton Company will post 2.64 EPS for the current year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 25th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 4th were issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.30%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 4th. Halliburton's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 28.45%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on HAL shares. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $29.00 to $26.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on shares of Halliburton from $37.00 to $32.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on Halliburton from $27.00 to $24.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Halliburton from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, June 5th. Finally, UBS Group cut their price target on Halliburton from $23.00 to $22.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $33.58.

Halliburton 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.