Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd Lowers Stock Position in Halliburton Company $HAL

Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd lowered its stake in shares of Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) by 33.8% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 306,580 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after selling 156,574 shares during the period. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $7,542,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of HAL. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in shares of Halliburton by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 5,929,285 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $145,860,000 after acquiring an additional 96,394 shares during the last quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management bought a new stake in Halliburton during the 3rd quarter valued at $1,775,000. Tejara Capital Ltd boosted its position in Halliburton by 98.8% during the 3rd quarter. Tejara Capital Ltd now owns 134,365 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $3,305,000 after buying an additional 66,765 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund boosted its position in Halliburton by 12.8% during the 3rd quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 1,645,526 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $40,480,000 after buying an additional 186,105 shares during the period. Finally, Impala Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in Halliburton in the 3rd quarter worth $2,091,000. Institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Evercore upgraded shares of Halliburton from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $42.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Friday. Piper Sandler raised their target price on Halliburton from $30.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. UBS Group boosted their price target on Halliburton from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Halliburton from $30.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on Halliburton from $33.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $35.67.

Halliburton Trading Down 1.4%

Shares of HAL opened at $36.41 on Friday. Halliburton Company has a 1-year low of $18.72 and a 1-year high of $37.36. The company has a current ratio of 2.04, a quick ratio of 1.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $34.36 and its 200-day moving average price is $28.92. The firm has a market capitalization of $30.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.11, a PEG ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.73.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 21st. The oilfield services company reported $0.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by $0.14. Halliburton had a net margin of 5.78% and a return on equity of 19.77%. The company had revenue of $5.66 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.39 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.73 earnings per share. Halliburton’s revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Halliburton Company will post 2.64 EPS for the current year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 25th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 4th will be given a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 4th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is currently 45.03%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Lawrence J. Pope sold 100,000 shares of Halliburton stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.25, for a total transaction of $3,225,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 419,800 shares in the company, valued at $13,538,550. The trade was a 19.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, VP Timothy Mckeon sold 3,846 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.37, for a total value of $132,187.02. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 81,631 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,805,657.47. The trade was a 4.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 357,053 shares of company stock worth $12,178,682 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.56% of the company’s stock.

About Halliburton

Halliburton is one of the world’s largest providers of products and services to the energy industry, offering a broad portfolio that supports the lifecycle of oil and gas reservoirs from exploration and drilling through production and abandonment. Founded in 1919 by Erle P. Halliburton as an oil-well cementing company, the firm is headquartered in Houston, Texas and has developed into an integrated oilfield services company serving upstream operators globally.

The company’s activities encompass drilling and evaluation, well construction and completion, production enhancement and well intervention.