BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp Sells 22,771 Shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp trimmed its position in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 13.4% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 147,706 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after selling 22,771 shares during the quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $4,291,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in HAL. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC lifted its stake in shares of Halliburton by 274.9% during the 2nd quarter. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC now owns 1,121 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 822 shares in the last quarter. Country Trust Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Halliburton during the third quarter worth $36,000. ORG Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Halliburton in the third quarter worth $44,000. Mattson Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Halliburton in the second quarter valued at $54,000. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Halliburton by 34.2% during the 3rd quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,618 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 412 shares during the period. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

HAL has been the subject of several analyst reports. Benchmark restated a “buy” rating and issued a $40.00 target price on shares of Halliburton in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 14th. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Halliburton from $41.00 to $37.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Halliburton from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, November 18th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of Halliburton from $45.00 to $42.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 11th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $40.74.

Halliburton Price Performance

Shares of Halliburton stock opened at $31.72 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $27.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.90 and a beta of 1.90. Halliburton has a one year low of $27.26 and a one year high of $41.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 2.21 and a quick ratio of 1.62. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $29.79 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $31.69.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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). The firm had revenue of $5.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.83 billion. Halliburton had a net margin of 11.04% and a return on equity of 28.33%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.79 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Halliburton will post 3 EPS for the current year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 26th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 4th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.14%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.69%.

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.