Wright Investors Service Inc. Decreases Position in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Wright Investors Service Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 29.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 9,387 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after selling 3,917 shares during the period. Wright Investors Service Inc.’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $339,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. First Capital Advisors Group LLC. purchased a new position in Halliburton in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Quarry LP purchased a new position in Halliburton in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $34,000. KB Financial Partners LLC purchased a new position in Halliburton in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Ancora Advisors LLC grew its stake in Halliburton by 443.8% in the 3rd quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 881 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 719 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Princeton Global Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Halliburton in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $36,000. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently weighed in on HAL. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $44.00 to $48.00 in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Halliburton from $55.00 to $54.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Raymond James reduced their price target on shares of Halliburton from $49.00 to $47.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. TD Cowen boosted their price target on shares of Halliburton from $49.00 to $51.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, April 14th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $48.53.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Halliburton Stock Performance

Halliburton stock opened at $38.65 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $37.39 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $37.42. Halliburton has a twelve month low of $27.84 and a twelve month high of $43.85. The company has a market capitalization of $34.26 billion, a PE ratio of 13.19, a P/E/G ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 2.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.48, a current ratio of 2.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81.

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

Halliburton Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 6th were issued a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 5th. This is a boost from Halliburton’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.16. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is 23.21%.

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.