Cerity Partners LLC Acquires 207,838 Shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Cerity Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 84.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 453,649 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after purchasing an additional 207,838 shares during the quarter. Cerity Partners LLC’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $13,179,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC raised its position in shares of Halliburton by 274.9% during the second quarter. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC now owns 1,121 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 822 shares during the last quarter. Country Trust Bank purchased a new position in Halliburton during the third quarter valued at $36,000. Beacon Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Halliburton by 28.8% in the 1st quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,382 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $54,000 after acquiring an additional 309 shares during the last quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Halliburton in the 3rd quarter worth $44,000. Finally, Mattson Financial Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Halliburton during the 2nd quarter valued at about $54,000. 85.23% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on HAL shares. Barclays decreased their target price on Halliburton from $47.00 to $43.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Susquehanna decreased their price objective on Halliburton from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 8th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Halliburton from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, November 18th. Royal Bank of Canada downgraded shares of Halliburton from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $44.00 to $37.00 in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Finally, Bank of America dropped their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $40.74.

Halliburton Stock Performance

Shares of Halliburton stock opened at $32.00 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.62, a current ratio of 2.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $29.52 and its two-hundred day moving average is $31.93. Halliburton has a 52 week low of $27.26 and a 52 week high of $41.56. The company has a market capitalization of $28.11 billion, a PE ratio of 11.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.93 and a beta of 1.89.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The oilfield services company reported $0.73 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by ($0.02). Halliburton had a return on equity of 28.33% and a net margin of 11.04%. The company had revenue of $5.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.83 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.79 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Halliburton will post 3.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 26th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.13%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 4th. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.69%.

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.