First Trust Advisors LP Sells 206,665 Shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

First Trust Advisors LP trimmed its holdings in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL - Free Report) by 15.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,138,081 shares of the oilfield services company's stock after selling 206,665 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP owned about 0.13% of Halliburton worth $30,944,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Horrell Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in Halliburton during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Sierra Ocean LLC purchased a new position in shares of Halliburton in the 4th quarter valued at $36,000. Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Halliburton in the 4th quarter valued at $38,000. Blume Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Halliburton by 33.3% in the 4th quarter. Blume Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,600 shares of the oilfield services company's stock worth $44,000 after acquiring an additional 400 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wingate Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in Halliburton during the fourth quarter valued at about $52,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.23% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Margaret Katherine Banks sold 3,900 shares of the company's 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 directly owns 10,551 shares in the company, valued at $253,646.04. This represents a 26.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 127,101 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,321,149.13. The trade was a 52.63 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 206,782 shares of company stock worth $5,321,170 over the last quarter. 0.61% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Halliburton Trading Up 2.8 %

Shares of HAL stock opened at $21.19 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $23.86 and a 200-day simple moving average of $26.87. Halliburton has a 1-year low of $18.72 and a 1-year high of $38.91. The company has a market cap of $18.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.49, a PEG ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.45. 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 announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The oilfield services company reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.60. The business had revenue of $5.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th were issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.21%. Halliburton's payout ratio is currently 28.45%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Evercore ISI reduced their target price on shares of Halliburton from $43.00 to $35.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on shares of Halliburton from $37.00 to $32.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Raymond James lowered shares of Halliburton from a "strong-buy" rating to a "market perform" rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a "sector perform" rating and set a $34.00 price objective on shares of Halliburton in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on Halliburton from $29.00 to $27.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Halliburton currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $34.68.

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.

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