Empowered Funds LLC Buys Shares of 740,976 Halliburton Company $HAL

Empowered Funds LLC bought a new stake in Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 740,976 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,156,000. Empowered Funds LLC owned approximately 0.09% of Halliburton as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of HAL. Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 21.1% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 110,220,971 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $3,114,848,000 after purchasing an additional 19,190,520 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Halliburton during the second quarter worth approximately $2,812,327,000. State Street Corp grew its position in Halliburton by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 50,825,761 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $1,436,336,000 after purchasing an additional 861,964 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Halliburton by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 31,097,164 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $878,806,000 after buying an additional 443,064 shares during the period. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its stake in Halliburton by 82,596.0% in the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 29,771,388 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $841,339,000 after buying an additional 29,735,387 shares during the period. 85.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Halliburton news, CFO Eric Carre sold 24,778 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.89, for a total transaction of $889,282.42. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 148,520 shares in the company, valued at $5,330,382.80. This trade represents a 14.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, COO Jeffrey Shannon Slocum sold 52,572 shares of Halliburton stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.09, for a total transaction of $1,844,751.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 118,730 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,166,235.70. This represents a 30.69% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 0.57% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Rothschild & Co Redburn lifted their target price on shares of Halliburton from $40.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 15th. UBS Group cut their price objective on Halliburton from $40.00 to $39.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 27th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Halliburton from $47.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Halliburton in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on Halliburton from $55.00 to $53.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock 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 issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Halliburton currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $43.10.

Halliburton Trading Up 3.2%

Shares of NYSE:HAL opened at $35.55 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.02, a quick ratio of 1.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. The stock has a market capitalization of $29.62 billion, a PE ratio of 18.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 0.73. Halliburton Company has a 1 year low of $21.40 and a 1 year high of $43.59. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $33.79 and a 200 day moving average price of $36.54.

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

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 23rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 2nd. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is presently 35.60%.

Halliburton 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.