Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) was the target of a significant growth in short interest during the month of November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 23,200,000 shares, a growth of 5.2% from the November 15th total of 22,060,000 shares. Approximately 2.7% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 9,790,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.4 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Halliburton

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Country Trust Bank purchased a new position in shares of Halliburton during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Continuum Advisory LLC raised its holdings in Halliburton by 101.2% in the third quarter. Continuum Advisory LLC now owns 1,388 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 698 shares in the last quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Halliburton in the third quarter valued at $44,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Halliburton by 34.2% during the 3rd quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,618 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $47,000 after acquiring an additional 412 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. grew its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 393 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on Halliburton from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Raymond James cut their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $41.00 to $37.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 8th. 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 report on Friday, November 8th. Dbs Bank began coverage on shares of Halliburton in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. They set a “buy” rating and a $45.00 price target for the company. Finally, UBS Group lowered shares of Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $36.00 to $34.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Halliburton currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $40.58.

Halliburton Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE:HAL opened at $28.68 on Monday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $29.75 and a two-hundred day moving average of $31.28. Halliburton has a 52-week low of $27.26 and a 52-week high of $41.56. The company has a quick ratio of 1.62, a current ratio of 2.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. The company has a market capitalization of $25.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.61 and a beta of 1.90.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The oilfield services company reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.75 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $5.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.83 billion. Halliburton had a return on equity of 28.33% and a net margin of 11.04%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.79 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Halliburton will post 3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 26th. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 4th will be issued a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.37%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 4th. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.69%.

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.