Private Advisory Group LLC Takes Position in Halliburton Company $HAL

Private Advisory Group LLC purchased a new stake in Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm purchased 307,591 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,443,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Nvest Wealth Strategies Inc. purchased a new stake in Halliburton during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Kelleher Financial Advisors purchased a new position in shares of Halliburton in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Halliburton in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Zions Bancorporation National Association UT boosted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 196.4% in the 4th quarter. Zions Bancorporation National Association UT now owns 981 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 650 shares during the period. Finally, Matrix Trust Co bought a new position in shares of Halliburton during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

HAL has been the topic of several recent research reports. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $47.00 price target on shares of Halliburton in a report on Sunday, April 26th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of Halliburton in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their target price on shares of Halliburton from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 22nd. Finally, UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Halliburton from $40.00 to $39.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 27th. Eighteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Halliburton currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $43.10.

Halliburton Price Performance

Shares of HAL stock opened at $34.44 on Friday. Halliburton Company has a 52-week low of $20.78 and a 52-week high of $43.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 1.50 and a current ratio of 2.02. The firm has a market capitalization of $28.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.03, a P/E/G ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.73. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $34.42 and a 200 day moving average price of $36.46.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 21st. The oilfield services company reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.01. Halliburton had a return on equity of 18.71% and a net margin of 7.16%.The company had revenue of $5.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.50 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.55 EPS. Halliburton’s revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Halliburton Company will post 2.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 24th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 3rd. Halliburton’s payout ratio is currently 35.60%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Eric Carre sold 24,778 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.89, for a total value of $889,282.42. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 148,520 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,330,382.80. This represents a 14.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Corporate insiders own 0.57% of the company’s stock.

Halliburton Company Profile

Halliburton is one of the world’s largest providers of products and services to the energy industry, offering a broad portfolio that supports the lifecycle of oil and gas reservoirs from exploration and drilling through production and abandonment. Founded in 1919 by Erle P. Halliburton as an oil-well cementing company, the firm is headquartered in Houston, Texas and has developed into an integrated oilfield services company serving upstream operators globally.

The company’s activities encompass drilling and evaluation, well construction and completion, production enhancement and well intervention.