Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Shares Acquired by Vontobel Holding Ltd.

Vontobel Holding Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 65.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 57,920 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after purchasing an additional 22,906 shares during the quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd.’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $2,094,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. First Capital Advisors Group LLC. acquired a new position in shares of Halliburton during the 2nd quarter worth $26,000. Quarry LP purchased a new stake in shares of Halliburton in the 1st quarter worth about $34,000. KB Financial Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Halliburton in the 1st quarter worth about $35,000. Ancora Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Halliburton by 443.8% in the 3rd quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 881 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 719 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Princeton Global Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Halliburton in the 4th quarter worth about $36,000. 85.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Halliburton news, Director Margaret Katherine Banks sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.30, for a total value of $176,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 9,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $339,762.50. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Halliburton news, CEO Jeffrey Allen Miller sold 377,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.30, for a total value of $13,308,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 759,015 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,793,229.50. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Margaret Katherine Banks sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.30, for a total transaction of $176,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 9,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $339,762.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

Halliburton Stock Up 1.6 %

HAL opened at $38.65 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $37.39 and a 200 day moving average price of $37.42. The company has a market cap of $34.26 billion, a PE ratio of 13.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 2.00. Halliburton has a 1 year low of $27.84 and a 1 year high of $43.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a current ratio of 2.06.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 23rd. The oilfield services company reported $0.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.80 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $5.74 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.78 billion. Halliburton had a net margin of 11.46% and a return on equity of 31.59%. The company’s revenue was up 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.72 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Halliburton will post 3.42 earnings per share for the current year.

Halliburton Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 27th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 6th were given a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 5th. This is an increase from Halliburton’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.16. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is 23.21%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on HAL. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $44.00 to $48.00 in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Atb Cap Markets lowered shares of Halliburton from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 22nd. StockNews.com lowered shares of Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, April 14th. TD Cowen upped their target price on shares of Halliburton from $49.00 to $51.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, Raymond James reduced their target price on shares of Halliburton from $49.00 to $47.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $48.53.

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.