Park Avenue Securities LLC Acquires Shares of 14,774 Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Park Avenue Securities LLC bought a new position in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 14,774 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock, valued at approximately $402,000.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 0.8% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 20,630,361 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $597,234,000 after buying an additional 172,505 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in Halliburton by 23.1% during the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 16,782,174 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $487,522,000 after acquiring an additional 3,150,986 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its holdings in Halliburton by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,742,352 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $166,815,000 after purchasing an additional 115,504 shares in the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its position in Halliburton by 22.0% in the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 5,520,383 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $160,367,000 after purchasing an additional 995,649 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in Halliburton by 244.5% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 4,513,560 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $138,025,000 after purchasing an additional 3,203,224 shares in the last quarter. 85.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on HAL shares. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on Halliburton from $43.00 to $35.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Raymond James cut shares of Halliburton from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $34.00 target price on shares of Halliburton in a research report on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on shares of Halliburton from $43.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Halliburton from $35.00 to $33.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $37.42.

Halliburton Price Performance

HAL opened at $27.83 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $24.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.83, a P/E/G ratio of 3.58 and a beta of 1.91. Halliburton has a 12 month low of $25.51 and a 12 month high of $41.56. The company has a quick ratio of 1.62, a current ratio of 2.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $28.85 and a 200 day simple moving average of $30.03.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The oilfield services company reported $0.73 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.75 by ($0.02). Halliburton had a net margin of 10.90% and a return on equity of 26.03%. The business had revenue of $5.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.83 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.79 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Halliburton will post 2.94 EPS for the current year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 26th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 4th were given a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 4th. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is 24.03%.

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.