Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. Has $3.44 Million Position in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. lifted its stake in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL - Free Report) by 17.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 126,435 shares of the oilfield services company's stock after acquiring an additional 18,549 shares during the period. Great Valley Advisor Group Inc.'s holdings in Halliburton were worth $3,438,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Sanders Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Halliburton by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 24,372,694 shares of the oilfield services company's stock worth $662,694,000 after acquiring an additional 375,054 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Halliburton by 4.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 21,538,632 shares of the oilfield services company's stock worth $584,139,000 after acquiring an additional 908,271 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Halliburton by 10.4% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 18,530,937 shares of the oilfield services company's stock worth $503,856,000 after acquiring an additional 1,748,763 shares during the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC grew its stake in shares of Halliburton by 15.6% in the fourth quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 16,093,680 shares of the oilfield services company's stock worth $437,587,000 after acquiring an additional 2,171,722 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi lifted its position in Halliburton by 22.2% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 13,068,025 shares of the oilfield services company's stock worth $353,242,000 after purchasing an additional 2,378,043 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.23% of the company's stock.

Halliburton Stock Down 2.4%

Shares of NYSE:HAL traded down $0.48 during trading on Friday, hitting $19.60. 34,031,709 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 10,864,116. Halliburton has a 52 week low of $18.72 and a 52 week high of $37.08. The company has a current ratio of 2.05, a quick ratio of 1.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The company has a market cap of $16.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $21.21 and a 200-day moving average price of $25.28.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 22nd. The oilfield services company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.60. Halliburton had a return on equity of 26.03% and a net margin of 10.90%. The business had revenue of $5.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $5.28 billion. As a group, research analysts forecast that Halliburton will post 2.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 25th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 4th. Halliburton's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 28.45%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently commented on the company. UBS Group reduced their target price on Halliburton from $23.00 to $22.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Barclays reduced their target price on Halliburton from $29.00 to $26.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Halliburton from $29.00 to $27.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Hsbc Global Res raised Halliburton to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Citigroup cut their price objective on Halliburton from $33.00 to $31.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Halliburton presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $33.53.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Margaret Katherine Banks sold 3,900 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.04, for a total transaction of $93,756.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 10,551 shares in the company, valued at $253,646.04. This represents a 26.99% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, VP Timothy Mckeon sold 10,497 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.60, for a total value of $258,226.20. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 77,784 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,913,486.40. This represents a 11.89% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 65,576 shares of company stock worth $1,631,457 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.56% of the company's stock.

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.