Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd Acquires 9,837 Shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 10.6% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 102,563 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after purchasing an additional 9,837 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $3,465,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in shares of Halliburton by 46.0% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 61,090,055 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $2,408,171,000 after acquiring an additional 19,237,784 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Halliburton in the 4th quarter worth approximately $400,070,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Halliburton by 2.7% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 100,274,105 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $3,952,805,000 after buying an additional 2,618,740 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Halliburton by 24.9% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 7,878,811 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $284,822,000 after buying an additional 1,568,485 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 116.9% in the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,483,230 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $97,889,000 after acquiring an additional 1,338,371 shares during the period. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on HAL. Citigroup lowered their target price on Halliburton from $50.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, June 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on shares of Halliburton from $45.00 to $44.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Halliburton from $54.00 to $48.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on Halliburton from $47.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Halliburton presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $44.88.

Halliburton Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:HAL opened at $31.06 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $27.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.75, a P/E/G ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.93. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $32.94 and a 200 day moving average price of $35.50. Halliburton has a fifty-two week low of $30.31 and a fifty-two week high of $43.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 1.54 and a current ratio of 2.13.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 19th. The oilfield services company reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.80. Halliburton had a return on equity of 29.97% and a net margin of 11.61%. The firm had revenue of $5.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.95 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.77 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Halliburton will post 3.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 25th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.19%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.53%.

Insider Activity

In other Halliburton news, EVP Van H. Beckwith sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.75, for a total transaction of $367,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 273,908 shares in the company, valued at $10,066,119. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

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.