Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Cuts Stake in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio lowered its position in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL - Free Report) by 21.1% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 320,235 shares of the oilfield services company's stock after selling 85,731 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio's holdings in Halliburton were worth $9,303,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Halliburton by 17,317.6% in the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 13,631,188 shares of the oilfield services company's stock valued at $460,462,000 after buying an additional 13,552,927 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management increased its position in Halliburton by 24,954.1% during the 2nd quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 2,730,900 shares of the oilfield services company's stock valued at $92,250,000 after purchasing an additional 2,720,000 shares during the period. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC bought a new position in Halliburton during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $55,132,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Halliburton by 20.0% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 10,087,115 shares of the oilfield services company's stock valued at $340,752,000 after purchasing an additional 1,681,620 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its position in shares of Halliburton by 22.0% during 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 buying an additional 995,649 shares during the period. 85.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Halliburton Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:HAL traded down $0.21 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $28.68. 6,643,513 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,132,795. The company has a quick ratio of 1.62, a current ratio of 2.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.61 and a beta of 1.90. Halliburton has a 12 month low of $27.26 and a 12 month high of $41.56. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $29.80 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $31.40.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The oilfield services company reported $0.73 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.75 by ($0.02). Halliburton had a net margin of 11.04% and a return on equity of 28.33%. The firm had revenue of $5.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.83 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.79 earnings per share. Halliburton's revenue was down 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Halliburton will post 3 earnings per share for the current year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 26th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 4th will be issued a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 4th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.37%. Halliburton's payout ratio is currently 23.69%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on HAL shares. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on Halliburton from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Halliburton from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, November 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on shares of Halliburton from $47.00 to $40.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Raymond James lowered their price objective on Halliburton from $41.00 to $37.00 and set a "strong-buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on Halliburton from $45.00 to $42.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $40.58.

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.