New York State Common Retirement Fund Sells 88,625 Shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

New York State Common Retirement Fund cut its stake in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 4.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,934,269 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after selling 88,625 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $69,924,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Ancora Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Halliburton by 443.8% during the third quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 881 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 719 shares during the last quarter. Ogorek Anthony Joseph NY ADV boosted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 1,134.6% in the 3rd quarter. Ogorek Anthony Joseph NY ADV now owns 1,000 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 919 shares in the last quarter. Princeton Global Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Halliburton in the 4th quarter worth $36,000. Criterion Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Halliburton in the fourth quarter worth about $37,000. Finally, Stone House Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Halliburton during the 4th quarter worth approximately $38,000. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Halliburton

In related news, Director Margaret Katherine Banks sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.30, for a total transaction of $176,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 9,625 shares in the company, valued at $339,762.50. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, Director Margaret Katherine Banks sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.30, for a total transaction of $176,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 9,625 shares in the company, valued at $339,762.50. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jeffrey Allen Miller sold 377,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.30, for a total transaction of $13,308,100.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 759,015 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,793,229.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on HAL shares. UBS Group upped their target price on Halliburton from $46.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Barclays decreased their price objective on Halliburton from $55.00 to $54.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Raymond James decreased their price objective on Halliburton from $49.00 to $47.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $45.00 price objective on shares of Halliburton in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Halliburton from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Halliburton has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $48.81.

Halliburton Stock Performance

HAL opened at $38.58 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.48, a current ratio of 2.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The company has a market cap of $34.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.17, a PEG ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 2.00. Halliburton has a 52-week low of $27.84 and a 52-week high of $43.85. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $37.66 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $37.39.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 23rd. The oilfield services company reported $0.86 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.80 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $5.74 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.78 billion. Halliburton had a net margin of 11.46% and a return on equity of 31.59%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.72 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Halliburton will post 3.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.