State of Tennessee Department of Treasury Cuts Position in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

State of Tennessee Department of Treasury cut its holdings in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL - Free Report) by 3.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 614,526 shares of the oilfield services company's stock after selling 22,552 shares during the quarter. State of Tennessee Department of Treasury owned about 0.07% of Halliburton worth $16,709,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of HAL. Horrell Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in Halliburton during the 4th quarter valued at about $33,000. Sierra Ocean LLC purchased a new position in Halliburton during the 4th quarter valued at about $36,000. Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Halliburton during the 4th quarter valued at about $38,000. Blume Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Halliburton by 33.3% during the 4th quarter. Blume Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,600 shares of the oilfield services company's stock valued at $44,000 after acquiring an additional 400 shares during the period. Finally, Wingate Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Halliburton during the 4th quarter valued at about $52,000. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Eric Carre sold 141,206 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.13, for a total value of $3,689,712.78. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 127,101 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,321,149.13. This trade represents a 52.63 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, VP Timothy Mckeon sold 10,497 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.60, for a total transaction 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. This trade represents a 11.89 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 206,782 shares of company stock worth $5,321,170 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.61% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on HAL shares. Royal Bank of Canada restated a "sector perform" rating and set a $34.00 target price on shares of Halliburton in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Benchmark decreased their price objective on Halliburton from $40.00 to $35.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on Halliburton from $43.00 to $41.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Halliburton to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on Halliburton from $43.00 to $35.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $34.68.

Halliburton Stock Performance

Shares of HAL traded down $0.35 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $20.86. 11,003,499 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 9,953,775. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $23.74 and its 200-day simple moving average is $26.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.98 billion, a PE ratio of 7.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.45. Halliburton has a 52-week low of $18.72 and a 52-week high of $38.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 2.05 and a quick ratio of 1.54.

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

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 5th were paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 5th. Halliburton's dividend payout ratio is currently 28.45%.

Halliburton Company 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.