Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) Stake Lessened by KBC Group NV

KBC Group NV cut its stake in Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) by 9.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 71,331 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after selling 7,859 shares during the period. KBC Group NV’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $1,810,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Sanders Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 1.6% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 4.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 21,538,632 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $584,139,000 after acquiring an additional 908,271 shares in the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 15.6% in 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 acquiring an additional 2,171,722 shares in the last quarter. Amundi boosted 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 valued at $353,242,000 after acquiring an additional 2,378,043 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Halliburton in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $299,986,000. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Halliburton Stock Down 1.0%

Shares of NYSE:HAL opened at $21.49 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a current ratio of 1.98. The company has a market cap of $18.48 billion, a PE ratio of 8.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.40 and a beta of 1.13. Halliburton Company has a 52 week low of $18.72 and a 52 week high of $37.08. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $20.80 and a 200 day simple moving average of $23.80.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The oilfield services company reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60. Halliburton had a net margin of 9.31% and a return on equity of 24.01%. The company had revenue of $5.42 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.28 billion. As a group, research analysts expect that Halliburton Company will post 2.64 earnings per share for the current year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 25th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 4th were given a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 4th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.16%. Halliburton’s payout ratio is 28.45%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently commented on HAL shares. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Halliburton from $37.00 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on shares of Halliburton from $27.00 to $24.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Susquehanna cut their target price on shares of Halliburton from $32.00 to $30.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Halliburton to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Halliburton from $22.00 to $21.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $33.53.

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.