Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Position Lessened by Bridgewater Associates LP

Bridgewater Associates LP reduced its stake in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL - Free Report) by 57.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 25,799 shares of the oilfield services company's stock after selling 34,625 shares during the quarter. Bridgewater Associates LP's holdings in Halliburton were worth $701,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Sanders Capital LLC increased its holdings in Halliburton by 1.6% during the 4th 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 raised its position 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 worth $584,139,000 after purchasing an additional 908,271 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Halliburton by 10.4% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 18,530,937 shares of the oilfield services company's stock valued at $503,856,000 after buying an additional 1,748,763 shares in the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC grew its holdings in Halliburton by 15.6% during the 4th 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 buying an additional 2,171,722 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi increased its position in Halliburton by 22.2% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 13,068,025 shares of the oilfield services company's stock worth $353,242,000 after buying an additional 2,378,043 shares in the last quarter. 85.23% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Halliburton Stock Down 0.2 %

Halliburton stock traded down $0.05 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $20.65. 8,215,443 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 9,831,448. Halliburton has a 1 year low of $18.72 and a 1 year high of $39.37. 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 $17.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.30, a P/E/G ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $24.07 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $26.98.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The oilfield services company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.60. Halliburton had a return on equity of 26.03% and a net margin of 10.90%. The business had revenue of $5.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $5.28 billion. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Halliburton will post 2.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th were paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.29%. Halliburton's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.03%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Halliburton news, Director Margaret Katherine Banks sold 3,900 shares of Halliburton stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.04, for a total value of $93,756.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 10,551 shares of the company's stock, valued at $253,646.04. The trade was a 26.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Eric Carre sold 141,206 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.13, for a total transaction of $3,689,712.78. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 127,101 shares of the company's stock, 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 sold a total of 206,782 shares of company stock valued at $5,321,170 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.61% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

HAL has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Evercore ISI lowered their price target 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. Benchmark cut their price target on Halliburton from $40.00 to $35.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Raymond James downgraded Halliburton from a "strong-buy" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Susquehanna decreased their price target on Halliburton from $32.00 to $30.00 and set a "positive" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $29.00 to $26.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $36.68.

Halliburton 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.