New York State Common Retirement Fund Buys 54,880 Shares of Halliburton Company $HAL

New York State Common Retirement Fund lifted its position in Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) by 3.9% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,459,421 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after buying an additional 54,880 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $29,743,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of HAL. Stone House Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Halliburton during the 1st quarter worth approximately $30,000. Zions Bancorporation National Association UT purchased a new position in shares of Halliburton during the 1st quarter valued at $37,000. CVA Family Office LLC increased its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 94.8% in the second quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 1,882 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 916 shares during the period. Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 109.5% in the second quarter. Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,900 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 993 shares during the period. Finally, Hantz Financial Services Inc. raised its position in shares of Halliburton by 252.3% in the second quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 1,994 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $41,000 after buying an additional 1,428 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Halliburton

In other news, insider Mark Richard sold 160,000 shares of Halliburton stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.77, for a total transaction of $4,443,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 452,374 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,562,425.98. This trade represents a 26.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.56% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

HAL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Zephirin Group upped their target price on Halliburton from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Halliburton from $28.00 to $31.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 11th. Redburn Partners set a $35.00 target price on shares of Halliburton in a research note on Monday, November 3rd. Melius Research started coverage on shares of Halliburton in a research note on Wednesday, August 20th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $41.00 price target for the company. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of Halliburton from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $31.55.

Halliburton Stock Performance

NYSE HAL opened at $26.28 on Monday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $25.41 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $22.89. The company has a quick ratio of 1.43, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. Halliburton Company has a 12-month low of $18.72 and a 12-month high of $32.17. The firm has a market cap of $22.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.40 and a beta of 1.03.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 21st. The oilfield services company reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $5.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.39 billion. Halliburton had a return on equity of 20.12% and a net margin of 5.91%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.73 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Halliburton Company will post 2.64 EPS for the current year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 24th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 3rd will be issued a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.6%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 3rd. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is 45.03%.

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.