Manning & Napier Advisors LLC Purchases New Position in Halliburton Company $HAL

Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 29,529 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,007,000.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in Halliburton by 21.1% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 110,220,971 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $3,114,848,000 after acquiring an additional 19,190,520 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of Halliburton in the second quarter worth $2,812,327,000. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Halliburton by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 50,825,761 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $1,436,336,000 after purchasing an additional 861,964 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Halliburton by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 31,097,164 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $878,806,000 after purchasing an additional 443,064 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. raised its stake in shares of Halliburton by 82,596.0% during the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 29,771,388 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $841,339,000 after purchasing an additional 29,735,387 shares during the period. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on HAL. Piper Sandler raised Halliburton from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $40.00 to $43.00 in a report on Tuesday, July 14th. Capital One Financial lifted their target price on Halliburton from $41.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Halliburton in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Halliburton from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Finally, Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of Halliburton in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Eighteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Halliburton presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $43.10.

Halliburton Trading Down 2.3%

Shares of HAL opened at $33.85 on Wednesday. Halliburton Company has a fifty-two week low of $21.40 and a fifty-two week high of $43.59. The firm has a market cap of $28.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.72, a PEG ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.73. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $33.81 and a 200-day moving average price of $36.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 1.50 and a current ratio of 2.02.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 21st. The oilfield services company reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $5.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.50 billion. Halliburton had a return on equity of 18.71% and a net margin of 7.16%.Halliburton’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.55 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Halliburton Company will post 2.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 23rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 2nd. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.0%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is presently 35.60%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Eric Carre sold 24,778 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.89, for a total transaction of $889,282.42. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 148,520 shares in the company, valued at $5,330,382.80. The trade was a 14.30% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, COO Jeffrey Shannon Slocum sold 52,572 shares of Halliburton stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.09, for a total value of $1,844,751.48. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 118,730 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,166,235.70. This represents a 30.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 0.57% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Halliburton Profile

Halliburton is one of the world’s largest providers of products and services to the energy industry, offering a broad portfolio that supports the lifecycle of oil and gas reservoirs from exploration and drilling through production and abandonment. Founded in 1919 by Erle P. Halliburton as an oil-well cementing company, the firm is headquartered in Houston, Texas and has developed into an integrated oilfield services company serving upstream operators globally.

The company’s activities encompass drilling and evaluation, well construction and completion, production enhancement and well intervention.