Buckingham Capital Management Inc. Raises Stock Holdings in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Buckingham Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 40.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 73,381 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after purchasing an additional 21,059 shares during the quarter. Buckingham Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $1,995,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of HAL. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in Halliburton by 244.5% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 4,513,560 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $138,025,000 after purchasing an additional 3,203,224 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Halliburton by 23.1% during the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 16,782,174 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $487,522,000 after buying an additional 3,150,986 shares during the last quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC acquired a new position in shares of Halliburton in the 3rd quarter valued at about $55,132,000. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in shares of Halliburton by 31.3% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 5,100,693 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $138,688,000 after buying an additional 1,214,586 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its holdings in Halliburton by 22.0% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 5,520,383 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $160,367,000 after acquiring an additional 995,649 shares during the period. 85.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Eric Carre sold 141,206 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.13, for a total transaction of $3,689,712.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 127,101 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,321,149.13. The trade was a 52.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on HAL shares. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Griffin Securities lowered Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. UBS Group downgraded Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $36.00 to $34.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Halliburton from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on Halliburton from $42.00 to $37.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $37.42.

Halliburton Trading Down 0.5 %

NYSE HAL opened at $26.16 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $27.30 and its two-hundred day moving average is $29.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 2.05 and a quick ratio of 1.54. Halliburton has a 12 month low of $25.16 and a 12 month high of $41.56. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.24, a PEG ratio of 3.53 and a beta of 1.89.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 5th. Halliburton’s payout ratio is 24.03%.

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.