Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Short Interest Update

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL - Get Free Report) was the target of a significant drop in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 19,960,000 shares, a drop of 15.4% from the March 31st total of 23,590,000 shares. Approximately 2.3% of the company's shares are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 13,070,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.5 days.

Insider Transactions at Halliburton

In other news, Director Margaret Katherine Banks sold 3,900 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction 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 owns 10,551 shares in the company, valued at approximately $253,646.04. This trade represents a 26.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Eric Carre sold 51,179 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.00, for a total transaction of $1,279,475.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 127,101 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,177,525. This trade represents a 28.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 206,782 shares of company stock valued at $5,321,170. 0.56% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Halliburton

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Sanders Capital LLC lifted its holdings in Halliburton by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 24,372,694 shares of the oilfield services company's stock valued at $662,694,000 after acquiring an additional 375,054 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Halliburton by 4.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 21,538,632 shares of the oilfield services company's stock valued at $584,139,000 after purchasing an additional 908,271 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Halliburton by 10.4% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 18,530,937 shares of the oilfield services company's stock valued at $503,856,000 after purchasing an additional 1,748,763 shares during the period. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC grew its position in Halliburton by 15.6% during the fourth quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 16,093,680 shares of the oilfield services company's stock valued at $437,587,000 after buying an additional 2,171,722 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi increased its holdings in Halliburton by 22.2% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 13,068,025 shares of the oilfield services company's stock valued at $353,242,000 after buying an additional 2,378,043 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.23% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Halliburton to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on Halliburton from $37.00 to $32.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Halliburton from $33.00 to $31.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Susquehanna lowered their price target on shares of Halliburton from $32.00 to $30.00 and set a "positive" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Raymond James downgraded shares of Halliburton from a "strong-buy" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Halliburton currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $33.84.

Halliburton Stock Performance

NYSE HAL traded down $0.75 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $19.85. The stock had a trading volume of 16,598,445 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,137,406. Halliburton has a 52-week low of $18.72 and a 52-week high of $38.35. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $22.99 and a 200 day moving average of $26.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 1.54 and a current ratio of 2.05. The stock has a market cap of $17.07 billion, a P/E 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 released 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. Halliburton had a net margin of 10.90% and a return on equity of 26.03%. The business had revenue of $5.42 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.28 billion. Sell-side analysts predict that Halliburton will post 2.64 earnings per share for the current year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th were given a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.43%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 5th. Halliburton's dividend payout ratio is currently 28.45%.

About Halliburton

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.