Simmons Bank Sells 8,718 Shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Simmons Bank decreased its stake in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 14.3% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 52,260 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after selling 8,718 shares during the period. Simmons Bank’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $1,421,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in HAL. Allworth Financial LP lifted its holdings in Halliburton by 5.9% during the 3rd quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 8,212 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $239,000 after buying an additional 454 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in Halliburton by 18.8% during the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 71,206 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $2,040,000 after buying an additional 11,276 shares in the last quarter. PFG Investments LLC bought a new stake in Halliburton during the 3rd quarter valued at about $282,000. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC raised its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 13.5% in the 3rd quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 101,179 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $2,939,000 after purchasing an additional 12,067 shares in the last quarter. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale raised its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 324,735 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $9,325,000 after purchasing an additional 3,110 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Halliburton Stock Performance

HAL opened at $25.90 on Thursday. 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 fifty day moving average price of $27.01 and a 200 day moving average price of $28.81. The stock has a market cap of $22.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.15, a P/E/G ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.89. Halliburton has a 1 year low of $25.16 and a 1 year high of $41.56.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be issued a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 5th. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.03%.

Insider Activity at Halliburton

In other Halliburton news, CFO Eric Carre sold 141,206 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.13, for a total transaction of $3,689,712.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 127,101 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,321,149.13. This trade represents a 52.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.61% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

HAL has been the subject of several recent research reports. Evercore ISI reduced their price target on shares of Halliburton from $43.00 to $35.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $34.00 price target on shares of Halliburton in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Raymond James lowered shares of Halliburton from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Halliburton from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Benchmark reduced their price target on shares of Halliburton from $40.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $37.42.

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.