Benjamin Edwards Inc. Buys Shares of 7,362 Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Benjamin Edwards Inc. bought a new stake in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 7,362 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock, valued at approximately $249,000.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in Halliburton by 19.1% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,179,579 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $42,642,000 after purchasing an additional 189,324 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Halliburton by 319.0% during the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 36,956 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $1,385,000 after acquiring an additional 28,137 shares in the last quarter. Mediolanum International Funds Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Halliburton during the first quarter worth $1,908,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Halliburton by 10.9% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 8,350 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $329,000 after acquiring an additional 819 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stephens Inc. AR increased its position in shares of Halliburton by 622.1% during the fourth quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 66,741 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $2,413,000 after acquiring an additional 57,499 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Van H. Beckwith sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s 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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 273,908 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,066,119. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.61% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $50.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Bank of America lowered their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $41.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on shares of Halliburton from $47.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on shares of Halliburton from $46.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Halliburton from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Three 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $43.17.

Halliburton Price Performance

Shares of HAL opened at $29.47 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.09 billion, a PE ratio of 10.20, a PEG ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 1.89. The company’s 50-day moving average is $31.48 and its 200-day moving average is $34.84. Halliburton has a fifty-two week low of $27.52 and a fifty-two week high of $43.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 2.13 and a quick ratio of 1.54.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last issued 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 net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 29.97%. The company’s revenue was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.77 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Halliburton will post 3.14 EPS for the current year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 25th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 4th will be given a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.31%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 4th. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is 23.53%.

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.