Westerkirk Capital Inc. Invests $1.21 Million in Halliburton Company $HAL

Westerkirk Capital Inc. bought a new position in shares of Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 59,500 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,213,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Halliburton by 1.6% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 105,363,599 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $2,147,310,000 after acquiring an additional 1,617,696 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Halliburton by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 30,287,989 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $617,269,000 after acquiring an additional 346,218 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Halliburton by 0.4% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 22,342,963 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $453,461,000 after purchasing an additional 92,549 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in Halliburton by 7.3% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 10,813,905 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $274,349,000 after purchasing an additional 731,105 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brandes Investment Partners LP raised its stake in shares of Halliburton by 37.7% in the 2nd quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP now owns 6,625,668 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $135,031,000 after purchasing an additional 1,814,649 shares during the period. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Halliburton

In related news, insider Mark Richard sold 160,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.77, for a total transaction of $4,443,200.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 452,374 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,562,425.98. The trade was a 26.13% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.56% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

HAL has been the topic of a number of research reports. Zacks Research upgraded Halliburton from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Citigroup restated a “buy” rating on shares of Halliburton in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised shares of Halliburton from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Rothschild Redb raised shares of Halliburton to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 3rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Halliburton from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Halliburton has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $31.55.

Halliburton Trading Up 1.1%

NYSE HAL opened at $26.91 on Wednesday. Halliburton Company has a 12 month low of $18.72 and a 12 month high of $32.01. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $25.54 and a 200-day moving average of $22.97. The company has a market cap of $22.65 billion, a PE ratio of 17.82 and a beta of 1.03.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 21st. The oilfield services company reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.50 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $5.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.39 billion. Halliburton had a net margin of 5.91% and a return on equity of 20.12%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.73 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Halliburton Company will post 2.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 24th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 3rd will be given a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 3rd. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 45.03%.

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.