Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Has $1.28 Million Stock Position in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System trimmed its position in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 6.6% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 47,071 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after selling 3,345 shares during the period. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $1,280,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Sierra Ocean LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Halliburton in the fourth quarter worth $36,000. Continuum Advisory LLC lifted its stake in shares of Halliburton by 101.2% in the third quarter. Continuum Advisory LLC now owns 1,388 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $42,000 after buying an additional 698 shares during the last quarter. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Halliburton in the fourth quarter worth $38,000. Blume Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Halliburton by 33.3% in the fourth quarter. Blume Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,600 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $44,000 after buying an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. lifted its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 393 shares during the last quarter. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

HAL has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $42.00 to $37.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Evercore ISI cut their target price on shares of Halliburton from $43.00 to $35.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on shares of Halliburton from $43.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Halliburton from $35.00 to $33.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Raymond James cut shares of Halliburton from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $37.42.

Halliburton Stock Down 1.0 %

HAL opened at $24.75 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $26.32 and its 200-day simple moving average is $28.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 1.54 and a current ratio of 2.05. Halliburton has a twelve month low of $23.42 and a twelve month high of $41.56. The firm has a market cap of $21.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.74, a PEG ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.84.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be issued a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.75%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 5th. Halliburton’s payout ratio is 24.03%.

Insider Transactions at Halliburton

In other news, CFO Eric Carre sold 51,179 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.00, for a total value of $1,279,475.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 127,101 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,177,525. This represents a 28.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Margaret Katherine Banks sold 3,900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.04, for a total transaction of $93,756.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 10,551 shares in the company, valued at approximately $253,646.04. This trade represents a 26.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 206,782 shares of company stock valued at $5,321,170. 0.61% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.