Qtron Investments LLC Buys 3,487 Shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Qtron Investments LLC lifted its stake in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 31.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 14,692 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after buying an additional 3,487 shares during the period. Qtron Investments LLC’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $531,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in HAL. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in Halliburton by 19.1% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,179,579 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $42,642,000 after purchasing an additional 189,324 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in Halliburton by 271.0% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 768,057 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $27,781,000 after purchasing an additional 561,020 shares in the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC raised its position in Halliburton by 69.5% in the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 206,692 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $7,472,000 after purchasing an additional 84,771 shares in the last quarter. KLCM Advisors Inc. raised its position in Halliburton by 6.9% in the fourth quarter. KLCM Advisors Inc. now owns 490,230 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $17,722,000 after purchasing an additional 31,534 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vontobel Holding Ltd. raised its position in Halliburton by 65.4% in the fourth quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 57,920 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $2,094,000 after purchasing an additional 22,906 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

HAL has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $46.00 to $48.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $45.00 price objective on shares of Halliburton in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $46.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Halliburton has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $48.59.

Insider Transactions at Halliburton

In other news, CEO Jeffrey Allen Miller sold 377,000 shares of Halliburton stock in a transaction on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.30, for a total transaction of $13,308,100.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 759,015 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,793,229.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, insider Jeffrey Shannon Slocum sold 38,941 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.92, for a total value of $1,437,701.72. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 130,783 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,828,508.36. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jeffrey Allen Miller sold 377,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.30, for a total transaction of $13,308,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 759,015 shares in the company, valued at $26,793,229.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 434,287 shares of company stock valued at $15,415,304 over the last three months. 0.61% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Halliburton Trading Up 2.1 %

HAL stock traded up $0.74 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $36.70. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 9,384,156 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,729,764. Halliburton has a 52 week low of $28.43 and a 52 week high of $43.85. The stock has a market cap of $32.49 billion, a PE ratio of 12.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.91 and a beta of 2.01. The company has a quick ratio of 1.52, a current ratio of 2.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $38.25 and its 200-day simple moving average is $36.79.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The oilfield services company reported $0.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.67 billion. Halliburton had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 30.84%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.72 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Halliburton will post 3.39 EPS for the current year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 26th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 5th will be given a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 5th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.85%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is 23.53%.

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.