Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Shares Gap Down Following Weak Earnings

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL - Get Free Report)'s share price gapped down before the market opened on Tuesday following a dissappointing earnings announcement. The stock had previously closed at $21.92, but opened at $20.12. Halliburton shares last traded at $19.83, with a volume of 4,393,948 shares trading hands.

The oilfield services company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.60. The company had revenue of $5.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $5.28 billion. Halliburton had a return on equity of 26.03% and a net margin of 10.90%.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.27%. Halliburton's payout ratio is 28.45%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Halliburton from $23.00 to $22.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Citigroup cut their target price on Halliburton from $33.00 to $31.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on Halliburton from $43.00 to $41.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Raymond James downgraded shares of Halliburton from a "strong-buy" rating to a "market perform" rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Evercore ISI dropped their price target on shares of Halliburton from $43.00 to $35.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $34.68.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Halliburton news, VP Timothy Mckeon sold 10,497 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.60, for a total value of $258,226.20. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 77,784 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,913,486.40. This represents a 11.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Eric Carre sold 51,179 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.00, for a total transaction of $1,279,475.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 127,101 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,177,525. This represents a 28.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 206,782 shares of company stock valued at $5,321,170. Company insiders own 0.61% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of HAL. Sanders Capital LLC grew 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 worth $662,694,000 after purchasing an additional 375,054 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 4.4% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 21,538,632 shares of the oilfield services company's stock valued at $584,139,000 after buying an additional 908,271 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Halliburton by 10.4% in the 4th 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. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC boosted its stake in Halliburton by 15.6% during the fourth quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 16,093,680 shares of the oilfield services company's stock worth $437,587,000 after acquiring an additional 2,171,722 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi grew its holdings in Halliburton by 22.2% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 13,068,025 shares of the oilfield services company's stock worth $353,242,000 after purchasing an additional 2,378,043 shares during the period. 85.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Halliburton Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 1.54 and a current ratio of 2.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.36, a PEG ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.45. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $23.86 and a 200 day moving average price of $26.87.

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.