Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. Acquires New Position in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 6,040 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock, valued at approximately $218,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Halliburton by 1.5% during the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 18,691,333 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $590,048,000 after acquiring an additional 271,718 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in Halliburton by 65.5% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 17,217,776 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $677,520,000 after purchasing an additional 6,815,373 shares during the period. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main boosted its stake in Halliburton by 123.0% in the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 15,936,342 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $627,088,000 after purchasing an additional 8,791,319 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Halliburton in the 4th quarter worth approximately $457,245,000. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in Halliburton by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,384,178 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $408,617,000 after purchasing an additional 384,016 shares during the period. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Halliburton

In other news, Director Margaret Katherine Banks sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.30, for a total transaction of $176,500.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 9,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $339,762.50. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other Halliburton news, CEO Jeffrey Allen Miller sold 377,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.30, for a total value of $13,308,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 759,015 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,793,229.50. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Margaret Katherine Banks sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.30, for a total value of $176,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 9,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $339,762.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on HAL. Atb Cap Markets downgraded Halliburton from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 22nd. StockNews.com downgraded Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, April 14th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $45.00 price target on shares of Halliburton in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Susquehanna reiterated a “positive” rating and set a $49.00 target price on shares of Halliburton in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on Halliburton from $55.00 to $54.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $48.53.

Halliburton Trading Up 1.1 %

HAL stock traded up $0.43 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $39.08. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 6,634,510 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,132,801. Halliburton has a 1 year low of $27.84 and a 1 year high of $43.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a current ratio of 2.06. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $37.48 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $37.41. The firm has a market capitalization of $34.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.34, a PEG ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 2.00.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 23rd. The oilfield services company reported $0.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.80 by $0.06. Halliburton had a return on equity of 31.59% and a net margin of 11.46%. The business had revenue of $5.74 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.78 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.72 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Halliburton will post 3.42 EPS for the current year.

Halliburton Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 6th were given a dividend of $0.17 per share. This is an increase from Halliburton’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.16. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.74%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.21%.

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.