Argyle Capital Management LLC Grows Stock Position in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Argyle Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 5.3% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 56,686 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,861 shares during the quarter. Argyle Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $1,541,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Anchor Capital Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Halliburton by 15.3% during the 4th quarter. Anchor Capital Advisors LLC now owns 567,259 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $15,424,000 after acquiring an additional 75,151 shares during the period. QRG Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in Halliburton by 6.1% during the fourth quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 44,836 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $1,219,000 after purchasing an additional 2,597 shares in the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in Halliburton during the fourth quarter valued at about $4,084,000. FUKOKU MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE Co purchased a new stake in Halliburton in the fourth quarter worth about $212,000. Finally, National Pension Service raised its stake in shares of Halliburton by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. National Pension Service now owns 1,301,209 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $35,380,000 after buying an additional 8,353 shares during the period. 85.23% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently issued reports on HAL. Raymond James lowered shares of Halliburton from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Benchmark lowered their target price on shares of Halliburton from $40.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Halliburton from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Susquehanna decreased their price target on Halliburton from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 8th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $37.42.

Halliburton Stock Up 0.5 %

NYSE HAL opened at $26.05 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $27.02 and a 200-day moving average price of $28.79. Halliburton has a one year low of $25.16 and a one year high of $41.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 1.54 and a current ratio of 2.05. The company has a market capitalization of $22.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.20, a P/E/G ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.89.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be given a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.61%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.03%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Halliburton news, CFO Eric Carre sold 141,206 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.13, for a total transaction of $3,689,712.78. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 127,101 shares in the company, valued at $3,321,149.13. This represents a 52.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

Halliburton Profile

Halliburton Company provides products and services to the energy industry worldwide. It operates through two segments, Completion and Production, and Drilling and Evaluation. The Completion and Production segment offers production enhancement services that include stimulation and sand control services; cementing services, such as well bonding and casing, and casing equipment; and completion tools that offer downhole solutions and services, including well completion products and services, intelligent well completions, and service tools, as well as liner hanger, sand control, and multilateral systems.