Virtu Financial LLC Sells 53,494 Shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Virtu Financial LLC reduced its stake in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 76.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 16,281 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after selling 53,494 shares during the quarter. Virtu Financial LLC’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $473,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Advisory Resource Group lifted its holdings in Halliburton by 32.8% in the third quarter. Advisory Resource Group now owns 162,758 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $4,728,000 after buying an additional 40,182 shares during the period. Sunbelt Securities Inc. lifted its holdings in Halliburton by 108.2% in the third quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 6,187 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $180,000 after buying an additional 3,215 shares during the period. Neo Ivy Capital Management acquired a new position in Halliburton in the third quarter valued at approximately $724,000. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Halliburton by 13.5% in the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 13,954 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $408,000 after buying an additional 1,658 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Halliburton by 0.8% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 20,630,361 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $597,234,000 after buying an additional 172,505 shares during the period. 85.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on HAL shares. Raymond James cut their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $41.00 to $37.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 8th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Halliburton from $45.00 to $42.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 11th. Susquehanna cut their target price on shares of Halliburton from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on shares of Halliburton from $47.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Halliburton from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 18th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Halliburton presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $40.58.

Halliburton Stock Down 0.7 %

Halliburton stock opened at $28.68 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $25.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.61 and a beta of 1.90. Halliburton has a 1-year low of $27.26 and a 1-year high of $41.56. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $29.75 and a 200 day simple moving average of $31.28. The company has a current ratio of 2.21, a quick ratio of 1.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The oilfield services company reported $0.73 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $5.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.83 billion. Halliburton had a net margin of 11.04% and a return on equity of 28.33%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.79 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Halliburton will post 3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 26th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 4th will be given a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.37%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 4th. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.69%.

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.