Woodline Partners LP Invests $1.43 Million in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Woodline Partners LP bought a new stake in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 52,758 shares of the oilfield services company's stock, valued at approximately $1,434,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in HAL. Horrell Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Halliburton during the 4th quarter valued at about $33,000. Sierra Ocean LLC bought a new stake in shares of Halliburton during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Blume Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 33.3% in the fourth 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 period. Wingate Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Halliburton in the fourth quarter worth approximately $52,000. Finally, Quent Capital LLC grew its stake in Halliburton by 261.1% in the fourth quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 2,246 shares of the oilfield services company's stock worth $61,000 after purchasing an additional 1,624 shares in the last quarter. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Eric Carre sold 51,179 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.00, for a total value of $1,279,475.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 127,101 shares of the company's stock, 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, VP Timothy Mckeon sold 10,497 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.60, for a total transaction of $258,226.20. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 77,784 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,913,486.40. The trade was a 11.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 65,576 shares of company stock valued at $1,631,457. 0.56% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Halliburton Stock Performance

HAL stock traded up $0.23 during trading on Thursday, hitting $20.09. 9,874,163 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 10,712,093. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 2.05 and a quick ratio of 1.54. The company has a market cap of $17.27 billion, a PE ratio of 7.09, a P/E/G ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.19. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $21.44 and its 200 day simple moving average is $25.45. Halliburton has a 1 year low of $18.72 and a 1 year high of $37.08.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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%. On average, equities analysts expect that Halliburton will post 2.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 25th. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 4th will be paid a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 4th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.39%. Halliburton's dividend payout ratio is presently 28.45%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Barclays lowered their target price on Halliburton from $29.00 to $26.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $27.00 to $24.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Halliburton from $34.00 to $28.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 16th. UBS Group reduced their price target 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, Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of Halliburton from $33.00 to $31.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research 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.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $33.53.

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.