Stock Traders Buy High Volume of Put Options on Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Stock investors acquired 24,208 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 45% compared to the typical volume of 16,693 put options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. Raymond James dropped their target price on shares of Halliburton from $49.00 to $47.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of Halliburton from $49.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Halliburton from $46.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. StockNews.com raised shares of Halliburton from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $49.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Halliburton news, CEO Jeffrey Allen Miller sold 377,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.30, for a total transaction of $13,308,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 759,015 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,793,229.50. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, Director Margaret Katherine Banks sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.30, for a total value of $176,500.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 9,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $339,762.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jeffrey Allen Miller sold 377,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.30, for a total transaction of $13,308,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 759,015 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,793,229.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Halliburton

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Rise Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Halliburton during the 1st quarter valued at $26,000. Ancora Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Halliburton by 443.8% in the third quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 881 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 719 shares during the period. Johnson Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in Halliburton in the fourth quarter valued at $33,000. Ogorek Anthony Joseph NY ADV boosted its stake in Halliburton by 1,134.6% in the 3rd quarter. Ogorek Anthony Joseph NY ADV now owns 1,000 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 919 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Princeton Global Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Halliburton in the 4th quarter worth about $36,000. Institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Halliburton Stock Down 0.1 %

NYSE:HAL traded down $0.05 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $38.67. The stock had a trading volume of 4,537,364 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,083,489. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $37.57 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $37.39. The company has a market capitalization of $34.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 2.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 2.06 and a quick ratio of 1.48. Halliburton has a 1-year low of $27.84 and a 1-year high of $43.85.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 23rd. The oilfield services company reported $0.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.80 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $5.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.78 billion. Halliburton had a net margin of 11.46% and a return on equity of 31.59%. Halliburton’s quarterly revenue was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.72 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Halliburton will post 3.42 EPS for the current year.

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.