Aspire Growth Partners LLC Makes New $981,000 Investment in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Aspire Growth Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 36,092 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock, valued at approximately $981,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank bought a new position in Halliburton in the 4th quarter worth $299,986,000. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in Halliburton by 244.5% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 4,513,560 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $138,025,000 after buying an additional 3,203,224 shares in the last quarter. Amundi lifted its holdings in Halliburton by 22.2% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 13,068,025 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $353,242,000 after buying an additional 2,378,043 shares during the period. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC boosted its position in Halliburton by 15.6% during the 4th quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 16,093,680 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $437,587,000 after acquiring an additional 2,171,722 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 10.4% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 18,530,937 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $503,856,000 after acquiring an additional 1,748,763 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Halliburton

In other news, VP Timothy Mckeon sold 10,497 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.60, for a total transaction of $258,226.20. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 77,784 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,913,486.40. The trade was a 11.89 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Margaret Katherine Banks sold 3,900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.04, for a total value of $93,756.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 10,551 shares in the company, valued at approximately $253,646.04. This represents a 26.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 206,782 shares of company stock worth $5,321,170 in the last three months. 0.61% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on HAL. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $34.00 price target on shares of Halliburton in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Evercore ISI dropped their target price on shares of Halliburton from $43.00 to $35.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Raymond James lowered shares of Halliburton from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Halliburton to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Halliburton from $23.00 to $22.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $33.84.

Halliburton Price Performance

HAL opened at $20.60 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $23.11 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $26.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 1.54 and a current ratio of 2.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.28, a P/E/G ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.45. Halliburton has a 52-week low of $18.72 and a 52-week high of $38.35.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The oilfield services company reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.60. The company had revenue of $5.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.28 billion. Halliburton had a net margin of 10.90% and a return on equity of 26.03%. As a group, analysts predict that Halliburton will post 2.64 EPS for the current year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th were issued a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.30%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 5th. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is 28.45%.

About Halliburton

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.