Kentucky Retirement Systems Sells 836 Shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Kentucky Retirement Systems lowered its holdings in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 1.4% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 60,667 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after selling 836 shares during the period. Kentucky Retirement Systems’ holdings in Halliburton were worth $1,650,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of HAL. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Halliburton by 4.8% in the third quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 14,518 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $422,000 after buying an additional 667 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Halliburton by 6,443.2% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 245,698 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $71,380,000 after buying an additional 241,943 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in shares of Halliburton by 1,227.7% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 300,452 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $8,728,000 after buying an additional 277,823 shares in the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP raised its position in shares of Halliburton by 5.9% in the third quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 8,212 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $239,000 after buying an additional 454 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its position in shares of Halliburton by 18.8% in the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 71,206 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $2,040,000 after buying an additional 11,276 shares in the last quarter. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Halliburton news, CFO Eric Carre sold 141,206 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at approximately $3,321,149.13. The trade was a 52.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.61% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Evercore ISI dropped their price target on shares of Halliburton from $43.00 to $35.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Benchmark lowered their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $40.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $39.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Susquehanna decreased their target price on shares of Halliburton from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Griffin Securities cut shares of Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Halliburton currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $37.42.

Halliburton Stock Performance

NYSE HAL opened at $26.25 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 1.54 and a current ratio of 2.05. The company has a market capitalization of $22.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.27, a P/E/G ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.89. The company has a fifty day moving average of $27.06 and a 200-day moving average of $28.90. Halliburton has a 52-week low of $25.16 and a 52-week high of $41.56.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be paid a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.59%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 5th. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.03%.

Halliburton 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.