California State Teachers Retirement System Cuts Stock Holdings in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

California State Teachers Retirement System lowered its position in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 2.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 3,789,348 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after selling 80,050 shares during the quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System owned approximately 0.44% of Halliburton worth $103,032,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Horrell Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Halliburton in the 4th quarter valued at $33,000. Sierra Ocean LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Halliburton during the fourth quarter worth $36,000. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Halliburton in the fourth quarter valued at about $38,000. Blume Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Halliburton by 33.3% in the fourth quarter. Blume Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,600 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $44,000 after buying an additional 400 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wingate Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Halliburton during the fourth quarter worth about $52,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Halliburton Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE:HAL opened at $20.65 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.80 billion, a PE ratio of 7.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.45. Halliburton has a 1 year low of $18.72 and a 1 year high of $38.89. 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’s 50-day moving average is $23.62 and its two-hundred day moving average is $26.68.

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

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 5th were paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.29%. Halliburton’s payout ratio is 28.45%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

HAL has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $33.00 to $31.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Halliburton to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on Halliburton from $37.00 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Benchmark cut their target price on Halliburton from $40.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $34.00 price target on shares of Halliburton in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Halliburton has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $34.68.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Eric Carre sold 141,206 shares of Halliburton 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. The trade was a 52.63 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Margaret Katherine Banks sold 3,900 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.04, for a total transaction of $93,756.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 10,551 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $253,646.04. The trade was a 26.99 % decrease in their position. 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 three months. 0.61% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Halliburton

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.