Traders Buy Large Volume of Put Options on Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) saw some unusual options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock investors purchased 24,208 put options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 45% compared to the typical volume of 16,693 put options.

Insider Buying and Selling at Halliburton

In other Halliburton news, CEO Jeffrey Allen Miller sold 377,000 shares of Halliburton stock in a transaction on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.30, for a total transaction of $13,308,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 759,015 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,793,229.50. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, Director Margaret Katherine Banks sold 5,000 shares of Halliburton stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.30, for a total value of $176,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 9,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $339,762.50. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jeffrey Allen Miller sold 377,000 shares of Halliburton stock in a transaction on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.30, for a total transaction of $13,308,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 759,015 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,793,229.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Halliburton

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. MCF Advisors LLC boosted its position in Halliburton by 5.3% in the third quarter. MCF Advisors LLC now owns 4,643 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $188,000 after buying an additional 232 shares in the last quarter. Arcadia Investment Management Corp MI boosted its position in Halliburton by 0.7% in the third quarter. Arcadia Investment Management Corp MI now owns 37,010 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $1,499,000 after buying an additional 250 shares in the last quarter. Nvwm LLC boosted its position in Halliburton by 1.2% in the third quarter. Nvwm LLC now owns 22,759 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $922,000 after buying an additional 259 shares in the last quarter. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in Halliburton by 3.6% in the third quarter. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 7,605 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $308,000 after buying an additional 263 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lake Street Advisors Group LLC boosted its position in Halliburton by 2.3% in the third quarter. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC now owns 11,972 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $485,000 after buying an additional 268 shares in the last quarter. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on HAL. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Halliburton from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Halliburton from $46.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Halliburton from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Halliburton from $55.00 to $54.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, Raymond James dropped their target price on shares of Halliburton from $49.00 to $47.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $48.82.

Halliburton Stock Performance

NYSE HAL opened at $38.72 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $34.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.22, a PEG ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 2.00. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $37.75 and its 200 day simple moving average is $37.40. Halliburton has a twelve month low of $27.84 and a twelve month high of $43.85. The company has a quick ratio of 1.48, a current ratio of 2.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The oilfield services company reported $0.76 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.67 billion. Halliburton had a net margin of 11.46% and a return on equity of 31.59%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.72 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Halliburton will post 3.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.