Mraz Amerine & Associates Inc. Acquires 12,713 Shares of Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL)

Mraz Amerine & Associates Inc. raised its stake in Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL - Free Report) by 28.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 56,755 shares of the oilfield services company's stock after purchasing an additional 12,713 shares during the quarter. Mraz Amerine & Associates Inc.'s holdings in Halliburton were worth $1,423,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in HAL. Sanders Capital LLC grew its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 375,054 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised 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 purchasing an additional 908,271 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 period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Halliburton during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $299,986,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in Halliburton by 10.6% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 10,082,800 shares of the oilfield services company's stock valued at $274,151,000 after purchasing an additional 968,583 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.23% of the company's stock.

Halliburton Price Performance

NYSE HAL traded down $0.09 on Wednesday, reaching $22.07. The company had a trading volume of 12,290,793 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,478,132. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.97 billion, a PE ratio of 9.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.49 and a beta of 1.13. Halliburton Company has a 12 month low of $18.72 and a 12 month high of $37.08. The company has a quick ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $20.85 and its 200 day moving average price is $23.68.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The oilfield services company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.60. The company had revenue of $5.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.28 billion. Halliburton had a return on equity of 24.01% and a net margin of 9.31%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Halliburton Company will post 2.64 earnings per share for the current year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 25th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 4th were issued a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 4th. Halliburton's payout ratio is presently 28.45%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on Halliburton from $27.00 to $24.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Halliburton from $34.00 to $28.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 16th. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of Halliburton from $33.00 to $31.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $22.00 to $21.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Finally, Susquehanna cut their target price on shares of Halliburton from $32.00 to $30.00 and set a "positive" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $33.53.

Halliburton Company 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.