Empirical Asset Management LLC Invests $546,000 in Halliburton Company $HAL

Empirical Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 16,092 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock, valued at approximately $546,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in HAL. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in Halliburton by 10.2% during the first quarter. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,794 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $109,000 after purchasing an additional 258 shares in the last quarter. Vermillion Wealth Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 24.8% in the 4th quarter. Vermillion Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,456 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 289 shares in the last quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Halliburton by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 23,312 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $659,000 after purchasing an additional 349 shares during the last quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. increased its position in shares of Halliburton by 7.3% during the 4th quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 5,320 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $150,000 after purchasing an additional 361 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kingsview Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 3.7% during the 4th quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,363 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $293,000 after buying an additional 365 shares in the last quarter. 85.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on HAL. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Halliburton from $47.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. 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 report on Wednesday, April 22nd. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of Halliburton from $40.00 to $39.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 27th. Finally, Evercore restated an “outperform” rating and set a $43.00 price target on shares of Halliburton in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Eighteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $43.10.

Halliburton Stock Up 0.1%

Shares of Halliburton stock opened at $34.77 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 1.50 and a current ratio of 2.02. Halliburton Company has a 52-week low of $20.78 and a 52-week high of $43.59. The stock has a market capitalization of $28.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.20, a P/E/G ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.73. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $34.21 and its 200-day moving average price is $36.48.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 21st. The oilfield services company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.01. Halliburton had a net margin of 7.16% and a return on equity of 18.71%. The company had revenue of $5.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.50 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.55 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Halliburton Company will post 2.34 EPS for the current year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 24th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 3rd were given a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 3rd. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.0%. Halliburton’s payout ratio is presently 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 transaction of $889,282.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 148,520 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,330,382.80. This represents a 14.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders own 0.57% of the company’s stock.

About Halliburton

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.