Hennessy Advisors Inc. Acquires 20,900 Shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Hennessy Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL - Free Report) by 22.5% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 113,880 shares of the oilfield services company's stock after acquiring an additional 20,900 shares during the period. Hennessy Advisors Inc.'s holdings in Halliburton were worth $2,889,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in HAL. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Halliburton in the fourth quarter worth approximately $299,986,000. Amundi boosted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 22.2% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 13,068,025 shares of the oilfield services company's stock worth $353,242,000 after buying an additional 2,378,043 shares during the period. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 15.6% during the 4th quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 16,093,680 shares of the oilfield services company's stock worth $437,587,000 after buying an additional 2,171,722 shares during the period. Twinbeech Capital LP boosted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 314.1% during the 4th quarter. Twinbeech Capital LP now owns 2,044,661 shares of the oilfield services company's stock worth $55,594,000 after buying an additional 1,550,920 shares during the period. Finally, Freestone Grove Partners LP bought a new stake in shares of Halliburton during the 4th quarter worth $41,484,000. 85.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on HAL. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $33.00 to $31.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Susquehanna decreased their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $32.00 to $30.00 and set a "positive" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Halliburton to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $37.00 to $32.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $27.00 to $24.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $33.58.

Halliburton Price Performance

NYSE:HAL opened at $23.20 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $20.74 and a 200-day moving average of $24.58. The company has a market capitalization of $19.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.20, a PEG ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.14. Halliburton has a 52 week low of $18.72 and a 52 week high of $37.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 1.54 and a current ratio of 2.05.

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

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.93%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 4th. Halliburton's payout ratio is 28.45%.

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.

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