M&T Bank Corp Sells 13,373 Shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

M&T Bank Corp lowered its stake in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 10.7% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 111,690 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after selling 13,373 shares during the period. M&T Bank Corp’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $3,037,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of HAL. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in shares of Halliburton by 244.5% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 4,513,560 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $138,025,000 after purchasing an additional 3,203,224 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position 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 worth $487,522,000 after purchasing an additional 3,150,986 shares during the period. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC bought a new position in shares of Halliburton in the third quarter worth $55,132,000. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its position in shares of Halliburton by 31.3% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 5,100,693 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $138,688,000 after purchasing an additional 1,214,586 shares during the period. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its position in shares of Halliburton by 22.0% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 5,520,383 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $160,367,000 after purchasing an additional 995,649 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

HAL has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on Halliburton from $39.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Benchmark decreased their target price on Halliburton from $40.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Raymond James cut Halliburton from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on Halliburton from $42.00 to $37.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Barclays decreased their target price on Halliburton from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $37.42.

Halliburton Price Performance

Halliburton stock opened at $25.00 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $26.81 and its 200 day moving average is $28.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 2.05 and a quick ratio of 1.54. The firm has a market cap of $21.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.83, a P/E/G ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.84. Halliburton has a one year low of $23.42 and a one year 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 $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.72%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 5th. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.03%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Halliburton news, CFO Eric Carre sold 141,206 shares of Halliburton stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was 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 directly owns 127,101 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,321,149.13. The trade was a 52.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Margaret Katherine Banks sold 3,900 shares of Halliburton stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.04, for a total value of $93,756.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 10,551 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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. 0.61% of the stock is owned by 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.