Wesbanco Bank Inc. Acquires 96,236 Shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Wesbanco Bank Inc. increased its position in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL - Free Report) by 59.3% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 258,543 shares of the oilfield services company's stock after acquiring an additional 96,236 shares during the quarter. Wesbanco Bank Inc.'s holdings in Halliburton were worth $6,559,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its stake in Halliburton by 35.5% in the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 96,490 shares of the oilfield services company's stock valued at $2,588,000 after purchasing an additional 25,284 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new position in Halliburton during the fourth quarter valued at about $728,000. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Halliburton by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 2,257,250 shares of the oilfield services company's stock valued at $61,375,000 after purchasing an additional 80,567 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd boosted its position in shares of Halliburton by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 105,399 shares of the oilfield services company's stock valued at $2,866,000 after purchasing an additional 1,815 shares during the period. Finally, Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Halliburton in the 4th quarter worth about $165,000. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Halliburton Stock Up 2.8%

Shares of NYSE:HAL opened at $20.50 on Monday. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $20.68 and its 200-day moving average price is $24.87. Halliburton has a 12-month low of $18.72 and a 12-month high of $37.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a current ratio of 2.05, a quick ratio of 1.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68.

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

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 25th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 4th will be given a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 4th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.32%. Halliburton's payout ratio is 28.45%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Halliburton

In related news, CFO Eric Carre sold 51,179 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.00, for a total value of $1,279,475.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 127,101 shares in the company, valued at $3,177,525. The trade was a 28.71% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.56% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently commented on HAL. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on Halliburton from $37.00 to $32.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Citigroup lowered their target price on Halliburton from $33.00 to $31.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Halliburton from $34.00 to $28.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on Halliburton from $27.00 to $24.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, UBS Group decreased 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. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $33.58.

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.

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