Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Insider Sells $852,377.72 in Stock

Key Points

• Insider sale: Michael Casey Maxwell sold 20,348 shares at an average price of $41.89 for a total of $852,377.72, trimming his stake by 17.83% to 93,763 shares; the trade was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan and disclosed in an SEC filing.
• Earnings and analyst view: Halliburton beat Q1 estimates with $0.55 EPS versus $0.50 expected and $5.40B revenue (vs. $5.37B), while analysts hold a consensus "Moderate Buy" with a $41.09 target.
• Market reaction and dividend: Shares traded down about 3.1% to $40.42 on below-average volume; the company has a market cap of ~$33.8B, a P/E of 22.2, and pays a $0.17 quarterly dividend (≈1.7% yield).

Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL - Get Free Report) insider Michael Casey Maxwell sold 20,348 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.89, for a total transaction of $852,377.72. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 93,763 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,927,732.07. This trade represents a 17.83% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Halliburton Trading Down 3.1%

HAL stock traded down $1.30 on Wednesday, hitting $40.42. 7,896,390 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 15,262,245. Halliburton Company has a twelve month low of $19.22 and a twelve month high of $42.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 2.08 and a quick ratio of 1.54. The business's fifty day moving average is $37.41 and its two-hundred day moving average is $32.27. The stock has a market capitalization of $33.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 0.73.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 21st. The oilfield services company reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.50 by $0.05. Halliburton had a net margin of 6.95% and a return on equity of 19.04%. The company had revenue of $5.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.37 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.60 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was down .3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Halliburton Company will post 2.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 25th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 4th were given a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 4th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.7%. Halliburton's dividend payout ratio is presently 37.36%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. Rothschild & Co Redburn increased their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. Zephirin Group increased their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock a "sell" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their target price on shares of Halliburton from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 22nd. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on shares of Halliburton from $29.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 22nd. Seventeen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Halliburton presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $41.09.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in Halliburton by 81.8% in the third quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 91,030,451 shares of the oilfield services company's stock valued at $2,239,349,000 after acquiring an additional 40,969,139 shares in the last quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. raised its holdings in Halliburton by 82,596.0% in the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 29,771,388 shares of the oilfield services company's stock valued at $841,339,000 after acquiring an additional 29,735,387 shares in the last quarter. Strive Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in Halliburton in the third quarter valued at $418,738,000. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Halliburton in the fourth quarter valued at $169,304,000. Finally, Holocene Advisors LP acquired a new stake in Halliburton in the third quarter valued at $147,315,000. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Halliburton

Halliburton is one of the world's largest providers of products and services to the energy industry, offering a broad portfolio that supports the lifecycle of oil and gas reservoirs from exploration and drilling through production and abandonment. Founded in 1919 by Erle P. Halliburton as an oil-well cementing company, the firm is headquartered in Houston, Texas and has developed into an integrated oilfield services company serving upstream operators globally.

The company's activities encompass drilling and evaluation, well construction and completion, production enhancement and well intervention.

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