Bank of New York Mellon Corp Grows Position in Halliburton Company $HAL

Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in shares of Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) by 10.2% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 6,533,974 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after acquiring an additional 604,689 shares during the quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $184,650,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Nvest Wealth Strategies Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Halliburton during the 4th quarter worth $25,000. Kelleher Financial Advisors acquired a new stake in Halliburton in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. GoalVest Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in Halliburton in the 4th quarter valued at $35,000. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Halliburton during the second quarter valued at about $25,000. Finally, Strive Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Halliburton during the third quarter valued at about $31,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on HAL. Citigroup raised their target price on Halliburton from $47.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $47.00 price target on shares of Halliburton in a report on Sunday, April 26th. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $43.00 price target (up from $36.00) on shares of Halliburton in a report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Rothschild & Co Redburn boosted their target price on Halliburton from $40.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Halliburton from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Eighteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $43.27.

Halliburton Trading Down 5.1%

NYSE HAL opened at $39.12 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $39.77 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $34.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 1.54 and a current ratio of 2.08. Halliburton Company has a twelve month low of $20.09 and a twelve month high of $43.59. The stock has a market cap of $32.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.49, a PEG ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 0.69.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 21st. The oilfield services company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.50 by $0.05. Halliburton had a net margin of 6.95% and a return on equity of 19.04%. The business had revenue of $5.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.37 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.60 EPS. Halliburton’s revenue was down .3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Halliburton Company will post 2.34 EPS for the current year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 24th. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 3rd will be issued a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 3rd. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.7%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is currently 37.36%.

Insider Transactions at Halliburton

In related news, CEO Jeffrey Allen Miller sold 158,455 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.00, for a total value of $6,338,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,013,027 shares in the company, valued at approximately $40,521,080. This represents a 13.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Van H. Beckwith sold 198,349 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.29, for a total transaction of $8,189,830.21. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 146,186 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,036,019.94. This represents a 57.57% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 416,991 shares of company stock valued at $16,846,948 in the last three months. 0.57% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.