Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Reaches New 52-Week High – Still a Buy?

Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) shares reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $41.59 and last traded at $40.9940, with a volume of 509608 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $40.81.

Analyst Ratings Changes

HAL has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Argus boosted their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $39.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $39.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 25th. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $40.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $29.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Seventeen 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $41.09.

Halliburton Stock Performance

The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $37.28 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $32.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 1.54 and a current ratio of 2.08. The company has a market cap of $35.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.22, a P/E/G ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 0.68.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 21st. The oilfield services company reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by $0.05. Halliburton had a net margin of 6.95% and a return on equity of 19.04%. The company had revenue of $5.40 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.37 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.60 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Halliburton Company will post 2.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 25th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 4th were given a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 4th. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is currently 37.36%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO Jeffrey Shannon Slocum sold 5,441 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.82, for a total transaction of $184,014.62. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 187,423 shares in the company, valued at $6,338,645.86. This represents a 2.82% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, VP Timothy Mckeon sold 3,846 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.37, for a total value of $132,187.02. Following the sale, the vice president owned 81,631 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,805,657.47. This represents a 4.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 187,360 shares of company stock valued at $7,317,882 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.57% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Halliburton

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in 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 last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in Halliburton by 1.7% in 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 during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Halliburton by 1.4% in the fourth 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 purchasing an additional 443,064 shares during the last quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. raised its position in Halliburton by 82,596.0% in the fourth 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 purchasing an additional 29,735,387 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sanders Capital LLC raised its position in Halliburton by 9.4% in the third quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 26,004,682 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $639,715,000 after purchasing an additional 2,238,983 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.23% 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.