Check Out What Whales Are Doing With HAL

Someone with a lot of money to spend has taken a bearish stance on Halliburton HAL.

And retail traders should know.

We noticed this today when the big position showed up on publicly available options history that we track here at Benzinga.

Whether this is an institution or just a wealthy individual, we don't know. But when something this big happens with HAL, it often means somebody knows something is about to happen.

Today, Benzinga's options scanner spotted 11 options trades for Halliburton.

This isn't normal.

The overall sentiment of these big-money traders is split between 45% bullish and 54%, bearish.

Out of all of the options we uncovered, there was 1 put, for a total amount of $85,500, and 10, calls, for a total amount of $621,244..

What's The Price Target?

Taking into account the Volume and Open Interest on these contracts, it appears that whales have been targeting a price range from $32.0 to $41.0 for Halliburton over the last 3 months.

Volume & Open Interest Development

In terms of liquidity and interest, the mean open interest for Halliburton options trades today is 832.17 with a total volume of 11,333.00.

In the following chart, we are able to follow the development of volume and open interest of call and put options for Halliburton's big money trades within a strike price range of $32.0 to $41.0 over the last 30 days.

Halliburton Option Volume And Open Interest Over Last 30 Days

Biggest Options Spotted:

Where Is Halliburton Standing Right Now?

• With a volume of 6,581,129, the price of HAL is up 0.05% at $39.62.
• RSI indicators hint that the underlying stock may be approaching overbought.
• Next earnings are expected to be released in 89 days.

What The Experts Say On Halliburton:

• B of A Securities has decided to maintain their Buy rating on Halliburton, which currently sits at a price target of $47.
• Wells Fargo has decided to maintain their Equal-Weight rating on Halliburton, which currently sits at a price target of $40.
• Citigroup has decided to maintain their Buy rating on Halliburton, which currently sits at a price target of $48.
• Stephens & Co. downgraded its action to Equal-Weight with a price target of $40
• Morgan Stanley has decided to maintain their Overweight rating on Halliburton, which currently sits at a price target of $45.

Options are a riskier asset compared to just trading the stock, but they have higher profit potential. Serious options traders manage this risk by educating themselves daily, scaling in and out of trades, following more than one indicator, and following the markets closely.