Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC Raises Position in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC boosted its position in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 274.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,121 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after buying an additional 822 shares during the quarter. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $38,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in Halliburton by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 121,928,734 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $4,806,431,000 after acquiring an additional 377,500 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Halliburton by 2.7% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 100,274,105 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $3,952,805,000 after acquiring an additional 2,618,740 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in Halliburton by 46.0% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 61,090,055 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $2,408,171,000 after acquiring an additional 19,237,784 shares in the last quarter. Sanders Capital LLC increased its position in shares of Halliburton by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 23,538,783 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $850,927,000 after acquiring an additional 782,093 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Halliburton during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $400,070,000. Institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Van H. Beckwith sold 10,000 shares of Halliburton stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.75, for a total transaction of $367,500.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 273,908 shares in the company, valued at $10,066,119. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.61% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have issued reports on HAL shares. Bank of America dropped their target price on shares of Halliburton from $41.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Citigroup dropped their target price on Halliburton from $50.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on Halliburton from $47.00 to $46.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $42.00 target price on shares of Halliburton in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $45.35.

Halliburton Price Performance

NYSE HAL traded down $0.23 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $31.00. 4,846,566 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 7,549,822. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 2.13 and a quick ratio of 1.54. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $33.61 and its 200-day moving average is $35.93. Halliburton has a 52-week low of $30.31 and a 52-week high of $43.85. The company has a market capitalization of $27.44 billion, a PE ratio of 10.73, a PEG ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.93.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 19th. The oilfield services company reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.80. The business had revenue of $5.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.95 billion. Halliburton had a return on equity of 29.97% and a net margin of 11.61%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.77 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Halliburton will post 3.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 26th. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 5th were paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 5th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.19%. Halliburton’s payout ratio is 23.53%.

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.