Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD Sells 3,504,211 Shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lowered its holdings in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 47.2% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 3,921,832 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after selling 3,504,211 shares during the quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $106,636,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of HAL. Horrell Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Halliburton in the 4th quarter worth $33,000. Sierra Ocean LLC bought a new position in Halliburton in the fourth quarter valued at $36,000. Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Halliburton during the fourth quarter valued at about $38,000. Blume Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in Halliburton by 33.3% during the fourth quarter. Blume Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,600 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wingate Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Halliburton in the 4th quarter worth about $52,000. Institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Halliburton news, CFO Eric Carre sold 141,206 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.13, for a total value of $3,689,712.78. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Margaret Katherine Banks sold 3,900 shares of the firm’s 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 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 206,782 shares of company stock worth $5,321,170 in the last three months. 0.61% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on HAL shares. Citigroup dropped their target price on Halliburton from $33.00 to $31.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Susquehanna cut their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $32.00 to $30.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Halliburton to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Raymond James cut Halliburton from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Halliburton from $35.00 to $33.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $34.68.

Halliburton Stock Performance

Shares of HAL opened at $20.86 on Monday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $23.74 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $26.75. 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 capitalization of $17.98 billion, a PE ratio of 7.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.45. Halliburton has a one year low of $18.72 and a one year high of $38.89.

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

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th were given a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.26%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 5th. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is presently 28.45%.

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.