Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. Purchases 25,284 Shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its position in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 35.5% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 96,490 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after buying an additional 25,284 shares during the quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $2,588,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in HAL. CWM LLC increased its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 11.1% during the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 32,366 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $940,000 after buying an additional 3,224 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. grew its position in Halliburton by 16.9% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 3,531 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $103,000 after acquiring an additional 511 shares during the last quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt raised its position in Halliburton by 401.6% in the third quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 12,775 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $371,000 after purchasing an additional 10,228 shares during the last quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 3.8% during the third quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC now owns 90,352 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $2,625,000 after purchasing an additional 3,287 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Inspire Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of Halliburton by 26.0% in the third quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 9,855 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $286,000 after buying an additional 2,034 shares during the period. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on HAL. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on shares of Halliburton from $42.00 to $37.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Susquehanna dropped their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Halliburton from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Benchmark cut their target price on Halliburton from $40.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on shares of Halliburton from $43.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Seven equities 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, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $37.42.

Halliburton Stock Performance

NYSE:HAL opened at $25.17 on Monday. Halliburton has a 1-year low of $25.16 and a 1-year high of $41.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 2.05 and a quick ratio of 1.54. The business has a 50 day moving average of $27.74 and a 200 day moving average of $29.38. The company has a market capitalization of $22.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.89, a PEG ratio of 3.53 and a beta of 1.89.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last announced 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 10.90% and a return on equity of 26.03%. The business had revenue of $5.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.83 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.79 EPS. Halliburton’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Halliburton will post 2.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 26th. Shareholders 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.70%. Halliburton’s payout ratio is 24.03%.

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.