Cerity Partners LLC Raises Stake in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Cerity Partners LLC grew its position in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL - Free Report) by 69.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 206,692 shares of the oilfield services company's stock after buying an additional 84,771 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC's holdings in Halliburton were worth $7,472,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in HAL. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Halliburton in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $457,245,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main raised its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 123.0% in the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 15,936,342 shares of the oilfield services company's stock valued at $627,088,000 after purchasing an additional 8,791,319 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 65.5% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 17,217,776 shares of the oilfield services company's stock valued at $677,520,000 after purchasing an additional 6,815,373 shares in the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 140.4% in the 1st quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 3,737,112 shares of the oilfield services company's stock valued at $118,242,000 after purchasing an additional 2,182,602 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Halliburton in the 1st quarter valued at $68,873,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.23% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Halliburton news, CEO Jeffrey Allen Miller sold 377,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.30, for a total transaction of $13,308,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 759,015 shares in the company, valued at $26,793,229.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other Halliburton news, CEO Jeffrey Allen Miller sold 377,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.30, for a total transaction of $13,308,100.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 759,015 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,793,229.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Margaret Katherine Banks sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.30, for a total transaction of $176,500.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 9,625 shares in the company, valued at $339,762.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Halliburton Trading Down 1.7 %

Shares of NYSE:HAL traded down $0.66 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $38.44. The stock had a trading volume of 6,329,923 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,169,122. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $37.25 and a 200-day moving average price of $37.40. The company has a quick ratio of 1.48, a current ratio of 2.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The stock has a market cap of $34.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.12, a PEG ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 2.00. Halliburton has a fifty-two week low of $27.84 and a fifty-two week high of $43.85.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 23rd. The oilfield services company reported $0.86 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.80 by $0.06. Halliburton had a net margin of 11.46% and a return on equity of 31.59%. The firm had revenue of $5.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.78 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.72 earnings per share. Halliburton's revenue for the quarter was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Halliburton will post 3.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 6th were paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. This is an increase from Halliburton's previous quarterly dividend of $0.16. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.77%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 5th. Halliburton's payout ratio is currently 23.21%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on HAL. Atb Cap Markets lowered shares of Halliburton from an "outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Friday, December 22nd. Susquehanna restated a "positive" rating and issued a $49.00 price objective on shares of Halliburton in a research note on Monday, April 8th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $44.00 to $48.00 in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. StockNews.com lowered shares of Halliburton from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Sunday. Finally, TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of Halliburton from $49.00 to $51.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $48.53.

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.