MCF Advisors LLC Raises Holdings in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

MCF Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 58.2% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 8,435 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after buying an additional 3,104 shares during the quarter. MCF Advisors LLC’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $229,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 20,630,361 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $597,234,000 after purchasing an additional 172,505 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Halliburton by 23.1% during the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 16,782,174 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $487,522,000 after buying an additional 3,150,986 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its stake in Halliburton by 2.1% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,742,352 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $166,815,000 after buying an additional 115,504 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its position in shares of Halliburton by 22.0% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 5,520,383 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $160,367,000 after acquiring an additional 995,649 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in shares of Halliburton by 244.5% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 4,513,560 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $138,025,000 after acquiring an additional 3,203,224 shares during the period. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Halliburton Stock Performance

Shares of HAL opened at $28.56 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 2.21 and a quick ratio of 1.62. Halliburton has a 12-month low of $25.51 and a 12-month high of $41.56. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $28.92 and its 200 day moving average price is $30.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.09 billion, a PE ratio of 9.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.76 and a beta of 1.91.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The oilfield services company reported $0.73 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.75 by ($0.02). Halliburton had a net margin of 11.04% and a return on equity of 28.33%. The business had revenue of $5.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.83 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.79 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Halliburton will post 2.99 EPS for the current year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 26th. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 4th were given a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 4th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.38%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.69%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler assumed coverage on shares of Halliburton in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $36.00 price target for the company. Evercore ISI dropped their target price on Halliburton from $43.00 to $35.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on Halliburton from $45.00 to $42.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 11th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Finally, Barclays reissued an “equal weight” rating and set a $33.00 target price (down from $43.00) on shares of Halliburton in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $38.26.

Halliburton 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.