TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. Raises Position in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL - Free Report) by 73.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 538,876 shares of the oilfield services company's stock after purchasing an additional 227,736 shares during the period. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. owned about 0.06% of Halliburton worth $14,652,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Horrell Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Halliburton during the fourth quarter worth approximately $33,000. Sierra Ocean LLC bought a new stake in shares of Halliburton during the fourth quarter worth approximately $36,000. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Halliburton in the 4th quarter valued at $38,000. Blume Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Halliburton by 33.3% in the 4th quarter. Blume Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,600 shares of the oilfield services company's stock valued at $44,000 after acquiring an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wingate Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Halliburton in the fourth quarter worth $52,000. 85.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on HAL. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $43.00 to $35.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Raymond James cut shares of Halliburton from a "strong-buy" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Benchmark dropped their price target on shares of Halliburton from $40.00 to $35.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $29.00 to $26.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Citigroup cut their target price on shares of Halliburton from $33.00 to $31.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Halliburton currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $34.68.

Halliburton Stock Performance

Halliburton stock traded down $0.35 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $20.86. The company's stock had a trading volume of 11,003,499 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,934,186. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $23.74 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $26.80. 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 has a 12-month low of $18.72 and a 12-month high of $38.89. The company has a market capitalization of $17.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.37, a PEG ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.45.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts' consensus estimates of $0.60. Halliburton had a return on equity of 26.03% and a net margin of 10.90%. The company had revenue of $5.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.28 billion. Sell-side analysts predict that Halliburton will post 2.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th were given a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.26%. Halliburton's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 28.45%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Halliburton news, CFO Eric Carre sold 51,179 shares of Halliburton stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.00, for a total transaction of $1,279,475.00. Following the completion of the sale, 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, VP Timothy Mckeon sold 10,497 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.60, for a total transaction of $258,226.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 77,784 shares in the company, valued at $1,913,486.40. The trade was a 11.89 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 206,782 shares of company stock valued at $5,321,170. Company insiders own 0.61% of the company's stock.

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.