Marshall Wace LLP Sells 268,186 Shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Marshall Wace LLP lowered its holdings in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL - Free Report) by 88.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 33,513 shares of the oilfield services company's stock after selling 268,186 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP's holdings in Halliburton were worth $911,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Sanders Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of Halliburton by 1.6% in the 4th 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 last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in 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 worth $584,139,000 after purchasing an additional 908,271 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Halliburton by 10.4% in the fourth 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 last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC boosted its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 2,171,722 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi grew its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 22.2% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 13,068,025 shares of the oilfield services company's stock worth $353,242,000 after purchasing an additional 2,378,043 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.23% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

HAL has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group lowered 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. Raymond James downgraded shares of Halliburton from a "strong-buy" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Hsbc Global Res raised Halliburton to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on Halliburton from $43.00 to $35.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, Citigroup cut their price objective on Halliburton from $33.00 to $31.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $33.84.

Halliburton Stock Down 2.4 %

Shares of Halliburton stock traded down $0.49 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $20.12. The company had a trading volume of 8,057,600 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,668,569. Halliburton has a 52-week low of $18.72 and a 52-week high of $38.35. 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 capitalization of $17.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.11, a P/E/G ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a 50 day moving average of $23.11 and a 200 day moving average of $26.42.

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

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th were issued a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.38%. Halliburton's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 28.45%.

Insider Transactions at Halliburton

In other news, CFO Eric Carre sold 141,206 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.13, for a total transaction of $3,689,712.78. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 127,101 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,321,149.13. This trade represents a 52.63 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Margaret Katherine Banks sold 3,900 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were 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 of the company's stock, valued at $253,646.04. The trade was a 26.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 206,782 shares of company stock worth $5,321,170. Corporate insiders own 0.56% of the company's stock.

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.