210,000 Shares in Halliburton Company $HAL Purchased by Groupe la Francaise

Groupe la Francaise purchased a new stake in shares of Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor purchased 210,000 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,191,000.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nvest Wealth Strategies Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Halliburton in the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Kelleher Financial Advisors bought a new stake in shares of Halliburton during the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Halliburton in the second quarter valued at $25,000. Zions Bancorporation National Association UT raised its stake in shares of Halliburton by 196.4% in the fourth quarter. Zions Bancorporation National Association UT now owns 981 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 650 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Strive Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Halliburton in the third quarter worth $31,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

HAL has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Halliburton from $40.00 to $39.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $47.00 price objective on shares of Halliburton in a research note on Sunday, April 26th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Halliburton in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $55.00 to $53.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Halliburton from $47.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Eighteen equities research 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, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $43.10.

Key Headlines Impacting Halliburton

Here are the key news stories impacting Halliburton this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Halliburton signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with Beetaloo Energy to support a proposed gas-to-power project linked to an artificial-intelligence data center in Australia’s Northern Territory. The opportunity could create future work in drilling, production and energy infrastructure, although it is not yet a firm contract. Reuters article
• Positive Sentiment: Brokerages maintain a consensus “Moderate Buy” recommendation for HAL, offering some support after the stock’s recent weakness. Halliburton consensus recommendation
• Neutral Sentiment: Halliburton stock rose in the latest session but continued to underperform the broader market, indicating that investors remain cautious despite the recent bounce. MarketWatch stock performance article
• Negative Sentiment: UBS said Halliburton’s soft third-quarter guidance is weighing on the stock. The cautious outlook raises concerns about weaker oilfield-services demand, pricing or international activity in the near term. UBS Halliburton outlook article

Halliburton Price Performance

Shares of HAL stock opened at $32.22 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $35.88 and its 200 day simple moving average is $36.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 2.02 and a quick ratio of 1.50. The firm has a market cap of $26.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.87, a P/E/G ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.71. Halliburton Company has a one year low of $20.39 and a one year high of $43.59.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 21st. The oilfield services company reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.01. Halliburton had a return on equity of 18.71% and a net margin of 7.16%.The firm had revenue of $5.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.50 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.55 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Halliburton Company will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 24th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 3rd were paid a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 3rd. Halliburton’s payout ratio is currently 35.60%.

Insider Transactions at Halliburton

In related news, EVP Van H. Beckwith sold 198,349 shares of Halliburton stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.29, for a total transaction of $8,189,830.21. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 146,186 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,036,019.94. This trade represents a 57.57% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Michael Casey Maxwell sold 20,348 shares of Halliburton stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.89, for a total transaction of $852,377.72. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 93,763 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,927,732.07. This represents a 17.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 243,475 shares of company stock valued at $9,931,490. 0.57% of the stock is owned by 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.