Short Interest in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Declines By 19.1%

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) was the target of a large drop in short interest during the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 20,500,000 shares, a drop of 19.1% from the February 13th total of 25,330,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 10,460,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.0 days. Approximately 2.4% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Halliburton Price Performance

HAL stock opened at $25.04 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $26.41 and a 200 day moving average price of $28.14. The stock has a market cap of $21.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.85, a PEG ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.84. Halliburton has a fifty-two week low of $23.42 and a fifty-two week high of $41.56. The company has a quick ratio of 1.54, a current ratio of 2.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 5th. Halliburton’s payout ratio is 24.03%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on Halliburton from $42.00 to $37.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Benchmark lowered their price target on Halliburton from $40.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Barclays lowered their price target on Halliburton from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Halliburton from $35.00 to $33.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on Halliburton from $43.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Halliburton has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $37.42.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP Timothy Mckeon sold 10,497 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.60, for a total transaction of $258,226.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 77,784 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,913,486.40. This represents a 11.89 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Eric Carre sold 141,206 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.13, for a total value of $3,689,712.78. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 127,101 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,321,149.13. This 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 three months. 0.61% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Halliburton

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. MidWestOne Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in Halliburton by 4.4% during the third quarter. MidWestOne Financial Group Inc. now owns 8,610 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $250,000 after purchasing an additional 359 shares during the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board lifted its stake in Halliburton by 0.3% during the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 154,210 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $4,480,000 after purchasing an additional 390 shares during the last quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. lifted its stake in Halliburton by 28.8% during the third quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 1,759 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 393 shares during the last quarter. HBW Advisory Services LLC lifted its stake in Halliburton by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. HBW Advisory Services LLC now owns 10,504 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $286,000 after buying an additional 397 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blume Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in Halliburton by 33.3% in 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. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

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.