AdvisorShares Investments LLC Takes $431,000 Position in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

AdvisorShares Investments LLC bought a new stake in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm bought 15,850 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock, valued at approximately $431,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of HAL. Horrell Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Halliburton during the fourth quarter worth about $33,000. Sierra Ocean LLC purchased a new position in Halliburton during the 4th quarter worth approximately $36,000. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Halliburton during the fourth quarter worth approximately $38,000. Blume Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in Halliburton by 33.3% in the fourth quarter. Blume Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,600 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $44,000 after buying an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wingate Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Halliburton in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $52,000. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently commented on HAL shares. Evercore ISI reduced their price target on shares of Halliburton from $43.00 to $35.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Halliburton from $35.00 to $33.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Benchmark lowered their price target on Halliburton from $40.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $34.00 price objective on shares of Halliburton in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded Halliburton to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $34.68.

Insider Buying and Selling at Halliburton

In other news, CFO Eric Carre sold 141,206 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.13, for a total transaction of $3,689,712.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 127,101 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,321,149.13. This trade represents a 52.63 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Margaret Katherine Banks sold 3,900 shares of Halliburton stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.04, for a total value of $93,756.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 10,551 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $253,646.04. This represents a 26.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 206,782 shares of company stock worth $5,321,170. 0.61% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Halliburton Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of Halliburton stock opened at $20.50 on Wednesday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $23.49 and a two-hundred day moving average of $26.64. Halliburton has a 12-month low of $18.72 and a 12-month high of $38.80. The company has a current ratio of 2.05, a quick ratio of 1.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The stock has a market cap of $17.67 billion, a PE ratio of 7.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.45.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 22nd. The oilfield services company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.60. The firm had revenue of $5.42 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.28 billion. Halliburton had a return on equity of 26.03% and a net margin of 10.90%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Halliburton will post 2.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 5th were paid a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.32%. Halliburton’s payout ratio is 28.45%.

Halliburton Company 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.