Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Sees Large Decline in Short Interest

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) was the target of a large decrease in short interest in October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 21,820,000 shares, a decrease of 6.2% from the October 15th total of 23,270,000 shares. Approximately 2.5% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 9,250,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.4 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on HAL. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on shares of Halliburton from $47.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Royal Bank of Canada downgraded Halliburton from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $44.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Halliburton from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on Halliburton from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Dbs Bank initiated coverage on shares of Halliburton in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $45.00 price objective for the company. Four equities research 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 MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $40.74.

Halliburton Trading Up 0.1 %

NYSE HAL opened at $30.47 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.62, a current ratio of 2.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. Halliburton has a 52 week low of $27.26 and a 52 week high of $41.56. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $29.22 and a 200-day moving average price of $32.08. The company has a market cap of $26.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.62, a P/E/G ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 1.89.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The oilfield services company reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.75 by ($0.02). Halliburton had a net margin of 11.04% and a return on equity of 28.33%. The business had revenue of $5.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.83 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.79 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Halliburton will post 3.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 26th. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 4th will be issued a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 4th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.23%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.69%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Halliburton

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in HAL. Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 0.3% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 121,928,734 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $4,806,431,000 after purchasing an additional 377,500 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in Halliburton by 46.0% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 61,090,055 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $2,408,171,000 after buying an additional 19,237,784 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Halliburton by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 20,630,361 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $597,234,000 after acquiring an additional 172,505 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Halliburton by 23.1% during the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 16,782,174 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $487,522,000 after acquiring an additional 3,150,986 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Halliburton by 20.0% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 10,087,115 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $340,752,000 after acquiring an additional 1,681,620 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

About Halliburton

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.