Empirical Asset Management LLC Acquires New Stake in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Empirical Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 10,600 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock, valued at approximately $288,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of HAL. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its position in Halliburton by 17,317.6% in the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 13,631,188 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $460,462,000 after buying an additional 13,552,927 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 244.5% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 4,513,560 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $138,025,000 after purchasing an additional 3,203,224 shares during the last quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC bought a new stake in shares of Halliburton in the third quarter worth $55,132,000. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its holdings in Halliburton by 22.0% during 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 purchasing an additional 995,649 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in Halliburton by 127.2% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,557,130 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $52,600,000 after purchasing an additional 871,789 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Halliburton Trading Up 2.3 %

Shares of Halliburton stock opened at $29.96 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 1.62 and a current ratio of 2.21. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $28.94 and a 200-day moving average of $30.16. Halliburton has a 52-week low of $25.51 and a 52-week high of $41.56. The stock has a market cap of $26.32 billion, a PE ratio of 10.44, a PEG ratio of 3.36 and a beta of 1.91.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The oilfield services company reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 the consensus estimate of $5.83 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.79 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Halliburton will post 2.99 EPS for the current year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 26th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 4th were given a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, December 4th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.27%. Halliburton’s payout ratio is 23.69%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have commented on HAL. Bank of America cut their price target on shares of Halliburton from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on Halliburton from $35.00 to $33.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on Halliburton from $43.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Susquehanna decreased their target price on shares of Halliburton from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Griffin Securities lowered shares of Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $38.26.

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.