Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Trading Down 4.1% – Here’s What Happened

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) shares traded down 4.1% on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $28.17 and last traded at $28.32. 3,002,758 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 69% from the average session volume of 9,578,146 shares. The stock had previously closed at $29.53.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on HAL shares. Evercore ISI dropped their target price on Halliburton from $43.00 to $35.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Bank of America lowered their target price on shares of Halliburton from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Susquehanna lowered their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 8th. UBS Group cut Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $36.00 to $34.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on Halliburton from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $37.42.

Halliburton Stock Performance

The business has a fifty day moving average price of $28.85 and a 200-day moving average price of $30.03. The company has a quick ratio of 1.62, a current ratio of 2.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.83, a P/E/G ratio of 3.58 and a beta of 1.91.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The oilfield services company reported $0.73 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.75 by ($0.02). Halliburton had a return on equity of 26.03% and a net margin of 10.90%. The company had revenue of $5.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.83 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.79 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Halliburton will post 2.94 EPS for the current year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 26th. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 4th were given a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.44%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, December 4th. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.03%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Halliburton

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Halliburton by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 20,630,361 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $597,234,000 after buying an additional 172,505 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew 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 worth $503,856,000 after acquiring an additional 1,748,763 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its position in Halliburton by 2.1% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,742,352 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $166,815,000 after acquiring an additional 115,504 shares in the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its position in Halliburton by 22.0% during the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 5,520,383 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $160,367,000 after purchasing an additional 995,649 shares during the period. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Halliburton by 244.5% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 4,513,560 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $138,025,000 after purchasing an additional 3,203,224 shares during the last quarter. 85.23% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.