BNP Paribas Sells 520 Shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

BNP Paribas lowered its stake in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 10.6% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 4,400 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after selling 520 shares during the quarter. BNP Paribas’ holdings in Halliburton were worth $128,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Halliburton by 2.1% during the second quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 14,027 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $474,000 after purchasing an additional 295 shares in the last quarter. Guinness Atkinson Asset Management Inc boosted its position in Halliburton by 3.1% during the second quarter. Guinness Atkinson Asset Management Inc now owns 10,847 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $366,000 after purchasing an additional 330 shares in the last quarter. Moody National Bank Trust Division boosted its position in Halliburton by 2.9% during the second quarter. Moody National Bank Trust Division now owns 11,842 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $400,000 after purchasing an additional 336 shares in the last quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. boosted its holdings in Halliburton by 28.8% in the third quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 1,759 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $51,000 after acquiring an additional 393 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northwest Bank & Trust Co grew its stake in shares of Halliburton by 3.2% during the third quarter. Northwest Bank & Trust Co now owns 12,979 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $377,000 after acquiring an additional 397 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently commented on HAL. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $47.00 to $46.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Halliburton from $46.00 to $39.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Raymond James lowered their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $41.00 to $37.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective 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, Susquehanna reduced their target price on Halliburton from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $40.74.

Halliburton Price Performance

Shares of NYSE HAL opened at $31.89 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $28.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.11, a PEG ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 1.89. Halliburton has a 12 month low of $27.26 and a 12 month high of $41.56. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $29.63 and its 200-day simple moving average is $31.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 2.21 and a quick ratio of 1.62.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $5.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.83 billion. Halliburton had a net margin of 11.04% and a return on equity of 28.33%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.79 EPS. Analysts expect that Halliburton will post 3.01 EPS for the current year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 26th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 4th will be given a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 4th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.13%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.