Pitcairn Co. Grows Stake in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Pitcairn Co. increased its position in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 3.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 17,835 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after acquiring an additional 617 shares during the period. Pitcairn Co.’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $485,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of HAL. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Halliburton during the 4th quarter valued at about $299,986,000. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in Halliburton by 244.5% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 4,513,560 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $138,025,000 after buying an additional 3,203,224 shares during the last quarter. Amundi raised its position in Halliburton by 22.2% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 13,068,025 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $353,242,000 after acquiring an additional 2,378,043 shares during the period. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC boosted its stake in shares of Halliburton by 15.6% during the 4th quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 16,093,680 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $437,587,000 after acquiring an additional 2,171,722 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Halliburton by 10.4% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 18,530,937 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $503,856,000 after acquiring an additional 1,748,763 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Halliburton news, Director Margaret Katherine Banks sold 3,900 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.04, for a total transaction of $93,756.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 10,551 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $253,646.04. This trade represents a 26.99 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Eric Carre sold 141,206 shares of Halliburton stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.13, for a total value of $3,689,712.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 206,782 shares of company stock worth $5,321,170. Company insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

HAL has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Raymond James cut Halliburton from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on Halliburton from $42.00 to $37.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Evercore ISI reduced their target price on shares of Halliburton from $43.00 to $35.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Griffin Securities downgraded shares of Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $30.00 to $29.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 31st. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Halliburton has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $37.37.

Halliburton Stock Down 11.0 %

Shares of NYSE HAL opened at $19.93 on Friday. Halliburton has a 52-week low of $19.59 and a 52-week high of $41.56. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.04, a PEG ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.45. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $25.49 and a 200 day moving average price of $27.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 1.54 and a current ratio of 2.05.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th were issued a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 5th. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is 24.03%.

About Halliburton

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.