Aspire Growth Partners LLC Makes New $981,000 Investment in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Aspire Growth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 36,092 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock, valued at approximately $981,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in HAL. World Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Halliburton by 49.5% during the 3rd quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 9,161 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $266,000 after buying an additional 3,032 shares in the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in Halliburton during the third quarter valued at $358,000. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in Halliburton by 244.5% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 4,513,560 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $138,025,000 after acquiring an additional 3,203,224 shares during the last quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama lifted its stake in Halliburton by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 195,873 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $5,690,000 after purchasing an additional 587 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,889,257 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $83,933,000 after purchasing an additional 63,994 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Susquehanna decreased their target price on Halliburton from $32.00 to $30.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Barclays decreased their price objective on Halliburton from $29.00 to $26.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Citigroup cut their target price on shares of Halliburton from $33.00 to $31.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $34.00 price target on shares of Halliburton in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $23.00 to $22.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $33.84.

Halliburton Stock Up 3.4 %

NYSE:HAL opened at $20.60 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $17.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.45. Halliburton has a twelve month low of $18.72 and a twelve month high of $38.35. 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 fifty day simple moving average of $23.11 and a 200-day simple moving average of $26.46.

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

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th were issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.30%. Halliburton’s payout ratio is currently 28.45%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Halliburton

In other news, CFO Eric Carre sold 141,206 shares of the company’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 value of $3,689,712.78. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 127,101 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,321,149.13. This represents a 52.63 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP Timothy Mckeon sold 10,497 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.60, for a total transaction of $258,226.20. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 77,784 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,913,486.40. This represents a 11.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 206,782 shares of company stock valued at $5,321,170 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

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.