ProShare Advisors LLC Cuts Stake in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

ProShare Advisors LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 6.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 194,993 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after selling 12,647 shares during the quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $5,302,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Horrell Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Halliburton during the 4th quarter valued at about $33,000. Sierra Ocean LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Halliburton in the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. Blume Capital Management Inc. boosted 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 valued at $44,000 after buying an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. Wingate Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Halliburton during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $52,000. Finally, Quent Capital LLC increased its stake in Halliburton by 261.1% in the 4th quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 2,246 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $61,000 after acquiring an additional 1,624 shares during the last quarter. 85.23% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. Susquehanna lowered their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $32.00 to $30.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Halliburton from $34.00 to $28.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Citigroup dropped their price target on Halliburton from $33.00 to $31.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on Halliburton from $37.00 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Benchmark dropped their target price on Halliburton from $40.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Halliburton presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $33.53.

Insider Buying and Selling at Halliburton

In other news, Director Margaret Katherine Banks sold 3,900 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.04, for a total transaction of $93,756.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 10,551 shares in the company, valued at approximately $253,646.04. The trade was a 26.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Eric Carre sold 51,179 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.00, for a total transaction of $1,279,475.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 127,101 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,177,525. This trade represents a 28.71% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 65,576 shares of company stock worth $1,631,457 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.56% of the company’s stock.

Halliburton Price Performance

Shares of HAL stock opened at $21.25 on Monday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $22.20 and its 200 day moving average is $25.90. Halliburton has a 1-year low of $18.72 and a 1-year high of $38.35. 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 company has a market cap of $18.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.51, a PEG ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.19.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60. The business had revenue of $5.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.28 billion. Halliburton had a net margin of 10.90% and a return on equity of 26.03%. Research analysts predict that Halliburton will post 2.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.