Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Has $1.29 Million Position in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System lowered its stake in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 4.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 47,300 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after selling 2,400 shares during the period. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $1,286,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of HAL. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Halliburton in the 4th quarter valued at $38,000. Continuum Advisory LLC lifted its stake in shares of Halliburton by 101.2% in the 3rd quarter. Continuum Advisory LLC now owns 1,388 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 698 shares during the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Halliburton by 34.2% in the 3rd quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,618 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $47,000 after acquiring an additional 412 shares during the period. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. increased its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 28.8% during the 3rd quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 1,759 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 393 shares during the period. Finally, Wingate Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Halliburton during the 4th quarter worth about $52,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Halliburton

In other news, CFO Eric Carre sold 141,206 shares of Halliburton stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.13, for a total transaction of $3,689,712.78. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 127,101 shares in the company, valued at $3,321,149.13. The trade was a 52.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

Halliburton Price Performance

Halliburton stock opened at $26.16 on Monday. Halliburton has a 1 year low of $25.16 and a 1 year high of $41.56. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $27.30 and its 200-day simple moving average is $29.11. The company has a market capitalization of $22.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.53 and a beta of 1.89. 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 Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be given a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 5th. Halliburton’s payout ratio is currently 24.03%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

HAL has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Griffin Securities lowered shares of Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective 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. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Halliburton from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. 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. Finally, Benchmark decreased their target price on shares of Halliburton from $40.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $37.42.

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.