Halliburton Company $HAL Shares Bought by Perpetual Ltd

Perpetual Ltd increased its stake in Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) by 2.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,094,104 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after purchasing an additional 29,775 shares during the quarter. Perpetual Ltd’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $30,919,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Halliburton in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,054,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in Halliburton by 1.7% during the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 5,929,285 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $145,860,000 after purchasing an additional 96,394 shares in the last quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management bought a new stake in Halliburton during the third quarter worth approximately $1,775,000. Tejara Capital Ltd lifted its position in Halliburton by 98.8% in the third quarter. Tejara Capital Ltd now owns 134,365 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $3,305,000 after purchasing an additional 66,765 shares during the period. Finally, New York State Common Retirement Fund lifted its position in Halliburton by 12.8% in the third quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 1,645,526 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $40,480,000 after purchasing an additional 186,105 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Zephirin Group lowered Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $30.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Friday, January 23rd. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Halliburton in a research note on Monday, December 29th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Halliburton from $39.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 25th. UBS Group lifted their target price on Halliburton from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $35.00 price target on shares of Halliburton in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $36.05.

Insider Buying and Selling at Halliburton

In related news, VP Timothy Mckeon sold 3,846 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.37, for a total transaction of $132,187.02. Following the transaction, the vice president directly owned 81,631 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,805,657.47. The trade was a 4.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO Jeffrey Shannon Slocum sold 5,441 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.82, for a total transaction of $184,014.62. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 187,423 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,338,645.86. This represents a 2.82% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 515,508 shares of company stock valued at $18,516,882 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.56% of the company’s stock.

Halliburton Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:HAL opened at $38.12 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $31.84 billion, a PE ratio of 25.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 1.51 and a current ratio of 2.04. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $35.51 and a 200-day moving average of $30.02. Halliburton Company has a one year low of $18.72 and a one year high of $41.18.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 21st. The oilfield services company reported $0.69 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.55 by $0.14. Halliburton had a net margin of 5.78% and a return on equity of 19.77%. The company had revenue of $5.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.39 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.73 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Halliburton Company will post 2.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 25th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 4th were given a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 4th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.8%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 45.03%.

Key Halliburton News

Here are the key news stories impacting Halliburton this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Halliburton acquired Sekal AS to accelerate drilling automation, combining Sekal’s DrillTronics with HAL’s LOGIX platform — a strategic deal that could improve drilling efficiency, lower costs and differentiate services over time. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Recent fundamentals give support: Halliburton beat Q4 EPS and revenue expectations, maintains healthy liquidity and a moderate leverage profile — fundamentals that underpin medium?term confidence but rely on execution. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: CEO insider selling: CEO Jeffrey Allen Miller sold ~158,455 shares at about $40 (SEC Form 4 disclosure), a sizable reduction that can be interpreted as a near?term negative signal by some investors. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Sector headwinds: commentary in the market notes that while oil prices spiked, oil stocks broadly underperformed the crude move — suggesting much of the upside may already be priced in and potentially limiting near?term upside for HAL. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Near?term price action has been choppy: HAL slid in the prior session as the market digested the Sekal deal and valuation, showing short?term sensitivity despite the constructive strategic case. Read More.

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.