Nordea Investment Management AB Sells 591,271 Shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Nordea Investment Management AB lowered its stake in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 54.5% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 493,904 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after selling 591,271 shares during the quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $13,513,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 10.0% in the 2nd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 760,653 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $25,695,000 after acquiring an additional 69,193 shares during the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Halliburton by 6.9% during the second quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 50,326 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $1,700,000 after buying an additional 3,242 shares during the period. Savant Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Halliburton by 8.0% during the second quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 27,207 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $919,000 after buying an additional 2,017 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 3,757.1% in the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 37,067 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $1,251,000 after buying an additional 36,106 shares during the period. Finally, Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC lifted its stake in shares of Halliburton by 2.1% during the 2nd quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 36,902 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $1,247,000 after acquiring an additional 760 shares during the last quarter. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

HAL has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Halliburton from $35.00 to $33.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $45.00 to $42.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Raymond James lowered shares of Halliburton from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday. Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $40.00 price target on shares of Halliburton in a report on Friday, November 8th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on Halliburton from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Halliburton presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $38.95.

Halliburton Price Performance

Shares of HAL opened at $26.97 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $29.01 and a two-hundred day moving average of $30.41. 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 twelve month low of $25.51 and a twelve month high of $41.56. The company has a market cap of $23.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 1.91.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last posted 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). Halliburton had a return on equity of 28.33% and a net margin of 11.04%. 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 earned $0.79 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Halliburton will post 3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 26th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 4th were issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, December 4th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.52%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.69%.

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.