Creative Planning Raises Position in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Creative Planning lifted its stake in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 5.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 155,159 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,507 shares during the period. Creative Planning’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $5,241,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Halliburton by 2.1% in the 2nd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 14,027 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $474,000 after buying an additional 295 shares during the period. Massachusetts Wealth Management boosted its holdings in Halliburton by 1.7% in the 1st quarter. Massachusetts Wealth Management now owns 18,325 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $722,000 after buying an additional 300 shares during the period. Beacon Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Halliburton by 28.8% in the 1st quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,382 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $54,000 after buying an additional 309 shares during the period. Guinness Atkinson Asset Management Inc boosted its holdings in Halliburton by 3.1% in the 2nd quarter. Guinness Atkinson Asset Management Inc now owns 10,847 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $366,000 after purchasing an additional 330 shares during the period. Finally, Moody National Bank Trust Division boosted its holdings in Halliburton by 2.9% in the 2nd quarter. Moody National Bank Trust Division now owns 11,842 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $400,000 after purchasing an additional 336 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. Citigroup cut their price target on shares of Halliburton from $50.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, June 28th. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Halliburton from $41.00 to $37.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Susquehanna cut their price target on shares of Halliburton from $49.00 to $46.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on shares of Halliburton from $47.00 to $46.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada downgraded shares of Halliburton from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and cut their price target for the company from $44.00 to $37.00 in a report on Friday, September 13th. Three 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Halliburton has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $42.56.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Van H. Beckwith sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.75, for a total value of $367,500.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 273,908 shares in the company, valued at $10,066,119. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.61% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Halliburton Trading Up 2.9 %

NYSE:HAL opened at $30.73 on Friday. Halliburton has a one year low of $27.52 and a one year high of $43.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 2.13 and a quick ratio of 1.54. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $30.53 and its 200 day simple moving average is $34.40. The firm has a market capitalization of $27.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.63, a PEG ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.89.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 19th. The oilfield services company reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.80. Halliburton had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 29.97%. The business had revenue of $5.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.95 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.77 earnings per share. Halliburton’s quarterly revenue was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Halliburton will post 3.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 25th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 4th were paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.21%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 4th. Halliburton’s payout ratio is currently 23.53%.

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.