Legal Advantage Investments Inc. Acquires Shares of 12,500 Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Legal Advantage Investments Inc. acquired a new stake in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 12,500 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock, valued at approximately $340,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Ballentine Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Halliburton by 13.4% in the 4th quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 19,171 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $521,000 after purchasing an additional 2,267 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. raised its stake in Halliburton by 14.3% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 4,036 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $110,000 after acquiring an additional 505 shares during the period. Ballast Inc. raised its stake in Halliburton by 65.8% during the fourth quarter. Ballast Inc. now owns 25,045 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $681,000 after acquiring an additional 9,943 shares during the period. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC raised its stake in Halliburton by 14.3% during the fourth quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC now owns 7,974 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $217,000 after acquiring an additional 999 shares during the period. Finally, HB Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Halliburton by 17.9% during the fourth quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 13,345 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $363,000 after acquiring an additional 2,030 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Halliburton Stock Performance

NYSE:HAL opened at $29.96 on Tuesday. Halliburton has a 1 year low of $25.51 and a 1 year high of $41.56. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $28.94 and its 200 day simple moving average is $30.11. The company has a current ratio of 2.21, a quick ratio of 1.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.32 billion, a PE ratio of 10.44, a PEG ratio of 3.76 and a beta of 1.91.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The oilfield services company reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by ($0.02). Halliburton had a net margin of 11.04% and a return on equity of 28.33%. The firm had revenue of $5.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.83 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.79 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Halliburton will post 2.99 EPS for the current year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 26th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 4th were given a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, December 4th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.27%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is 23.69%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $39.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of Halliburton from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Evercore ISI dropped their price target on shares of Halliburton from $43.00 to $35.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Benchmark restated a “buy” rating and issued a $40.00 price target on shares of Halliburton in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Barclays restated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $33.00 price target (down previously from $43.00) on shares of Halliburton in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $38.26.

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.