Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC Acquires 5,997 Shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 7.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 89,551 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after buying an additional 5,997 shares during the period. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $2,972,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 2.1% during the 2nd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 14,027 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $474,000 after acquiring an additional 295 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Wealth Management grew its holdings in Halliburton by 1.7% during the first quarter. Massachusetts Wealth Management now owns 18,325 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $722,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Halliburton by 28.8% in the first quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,382 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $54,000 after purchasing an additional 309 shares during the period. Guinness Atkinson Asset Management Inc lifted its stake in shares of Halliburton by 3.1% in the second quarter. Guinness Atkinson Asset Management Inc now owns 10,847 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $366,000 after buying an additional 330 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Moody National Bank Trust Division boosted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 2.9% during the 2nd quarter. Moody National Bank Trust Division now owns 11,842 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $400,000 after buying an additional 336 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. Dbs Bank assumed coverage on shares of Halliburton in a report on Wednesday. They issued a “buy” rating and a $45.00 target price on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on Halliburton from $47.00 to $46.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Susquehanna decreased their target price on Halliburton from $49.00 to $46.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on Halliburton from $52.00 to $48.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $42.00 price target on shares of Halliburton in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Halliburton currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $43.17.

Halliburton Stock Performance

NYSE HAL opened at $29.53 on Friday. Halliburton has a twelve month low of $27.52 and a twelve month high of $43.85. The company has a quick ratio of 1.54, a current ratio of 2.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76. The stock has a market cap of $26.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.22, a PEG ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 1.89. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $31.57 and its 200 day simple moving average is $34.88.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 19th. The oilfield services company reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.80. The company 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 revenue was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.77 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Halliburton will post 3.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 25th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.30%. Halliburton’s payout ratio is presently 23.53%.

Insider Activity

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

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.