Norges Bank Takes $299.99 Million Position in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 11,032,969 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock, valued at approximately $299,986,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of HAL. NEOS Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 31.4% during the 4th quarter. NEOS Investment Management LLC now owns 52,051 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $1,415,000 after buying an additional 12,443 shares during the last quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd increased its stake in Halliburton by 20.0% during the fourth quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 94,189 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $2,561,000 after acquiring an additional 15,671 shares during the last quarter. Sava Infond d.o.o. purchased a new stake in Halliburton in the fourth quarter valued at $326,000. WINTON GROUP Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Halliburton by 11.2% in the 4th quarter. WINTON GROUP Ltd now owns 113,459 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $3,085,000 after purchasing an additional 11,405 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 9.5% during the 4th quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,406,264 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $38,925,000 after purchasing an additional 121,625 shares during the period. 85.23% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

HAL has been the topic of several research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $35.00 to $33.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Griffin Securities lowered shares of Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on shares of Halliburton from $43.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on Halliburton from $39.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, UBS Group cut Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $36.00 to $34.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $37.42.

Halliburton Price Performance

Shares of HAL opened at $25.08 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.86, a PEG ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.84. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $25.99 and its 200-day simple moving average is $27.95. Halliburton has a twelve month low of $23.42 and a twelve month high of $41.56. The company has a current ratio of 2.05, a quick ratio of 1.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th were paid a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 5th. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.03%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, VP Timothy Mckeon sold 10,497 shares of Halliburton stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.60, for a total transaction of $258,226.20. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 77,784 shares in the company, valued at $1,913,486.40. This trade represents a 11.89 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Eric Carre sold 141,206 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 127,101 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,321,149.13. This trade represents a 52.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 206,782 shares of company stock valued at $5,321,170 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

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.