ING Groep NV Decreases Position in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

ING Groep NV reduced its stake in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 5.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 112,203 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after selling 5,867 shares during the quarter. ING Groep NV’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $3,051,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of HAL. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its position in Halliburton by 244.5% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 4,513,560 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $138,025,000 after acquiring an additional 3,203,224 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Halliburton by 23.1% in the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 16,782,174 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $487,522,000 after purchasing an additional 3,150,986 shares during the period. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC acquired a new stake in Halliburton during the 3rd quarter valued at $55,132,000. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in Halliburton by 31.3% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 5,100,693 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $138,688,000 after purchasing an additional 1,214,586 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its stake in Halliburton by 22.0% during the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 5,520,383 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $160,367,000 after buying an additional 995,649 shares during the period. 85.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on HAL shares. Raymond James cut shares of Halliburton from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Susquehanna reduced their price target on Halliburton from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 8th. Griffin Securities lowered Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $34.00 target price on shares of Halliburton in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Halliburton from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Seven 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, Halliburton presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $37.42.

Halliburton Stock Performance

Shares of HAL stock opened at $26.25 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.54, a current ratio of 2.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The business has a 50 day moving average of $27.06 and a two-hundred day moving average of $28.91. The company has a market cap of $22.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.27, a PEG ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.89. Halliburton has a 52 week low of $25.16 and a 52 week high of $41.56.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.59%. Halliburton’s payout ratio is currently 24.03%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Halliburton news, CFO Eric Carre sold 141,206 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 127,101 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,321,149.13. This represents a 52.63 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.61% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.