Aristotle Atlantic Partners LLC Trims Holdings in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Aristotle Atlantic Partners LLC reduced its stake in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL - Free Report) by 5.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 334,953 shares of the oilfield services company's stock after selling 17,998 shares during the quarter. Aristotle Atlantic Partners LLC's holdings in Halliburton were worth $9,107,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Horrell Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Halliburton during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Sierra Ocean LLC bought a new position in Halliburton during the fourth quarter valued at $36,000. Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Halliburton in the fourth quarter worth $38,000. Blume Capital Management Inc. raised its stake 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 buying an additional 400 shares during the period. Finally, Wingate Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Halliburton during the 4th quarter valued at $52,000. 85.23% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on HAL shares. Raymond James cut Halliburton from a "strong-buy" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a "sector perform" rating and set a $34.00 price target on shares of Halliburton in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $43.00 to $35.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Barclays dropped their target price on Halliburton from $29.00 to $26.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Susquehanna reduced their price target on Halliburton from $32.00 to $30.00 and set a "positive" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Halliburton has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $33.84.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Margaret Katherine Banks sold 3,900 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.04, for a total transaction of $93,756.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 10,551 shares in the company, valued at $253,646.04. This trade represents a 26.99 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Timothy Mckeon sold 10,497 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.60, for a total value of $258,226.20. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 77,784 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,913,486.40. The trade was a 11.89 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 206,782 shares of company stock valued at $5,321,170. Corporate insiders own 0.56% of the company's stock.

Halliburton Price Performance

NYSE HAL traded down $0.75 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $19.85. 16,598,445 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 10,137,406. 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 stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $22.99 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $26.36. Halliburton has a 1 year low of $18.72 and a 1 year high of $38.35. The company has a market cap of $17.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.19.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 22nd. The oilfield services company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.60. The firm had revenue of $5.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.28 billion. Halliburton had a return on equity of 26.03% and a net margin of 10.90%. On average, analysts predict that Halliburton will post 2.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th were issued a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.43%. Halliburton's payout ratio is 28.45%.

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.