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

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) was the target of a large growth in short interest in June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 24,630,000 shares, a growth of 5.3% from the May 31st total of 23,380,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 6,780,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.6 days. Approximately 2.8% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Halliburton news, SVP Jill D. Sharp sold 3,346 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.00, for a total transaction of $123,802.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 40,185 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,486,845. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Halliburton news, EVP Van H. Beckwith sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.92, for a total value of $369,200.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 283,908 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,481,883.36. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Jill D. Sharp sold 3,346 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.00, for a total transaction of $123,802.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 40,185 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,486,845. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 52,287 shares of company stock worth $1,930,704 in the last quarter. 0.61% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Halliburton

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Rise Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Halliburton during the 1st quarter worth approximately $26,000. IAG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Halliburton in the first quarter worth $30,000. Ancora Advisors LLC increased its stake in Halliburton by 443.8% in the third quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 881 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 719 shares in the last quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Halliburton during the fourth quarter valued at about $33,000. Finally, Princeton Global Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Halliburton during the 4th quarter worth about $36,000. Institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Halliburton Price Performance

Shares of HAL opened at $33.78 on Thursday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $35.69 and a 200-day moving average of $36.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 2.12 and a quick ratio of 1.52. The company has a market capitalization of $29.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.93. Halliburton has a 1 year low of $32.35 and a 1 year high of $43.85.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The oilfield services company reported $0.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.67 billion. Halliburton had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 30.84%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.72 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Halliburton will post 3.37 earnings per share for the current year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 26th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 5th were paid a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.01%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 5th. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is 23.53%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. StockNews.com cut Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $45.00 price objective on shares of Halliburton in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on Halliburton from $50.00 to $49.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Susquehanna reissued a “positive” rating and issued a $49.00 target price on shares of Halliburton in a report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of Halliburton from $50.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, June 28th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $48.75.

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.