Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Shares Bought by Metis Global Partners LLC

Metis Global Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 31.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 63,947 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after acquiring an additional 15,439 shares during the quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $1,739,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Mediolanum International Funds Ltd boosted its holdings in Halliburton by 48.2% in the fourth quarter. Mediolanum International Funds Ltd now owns 71,797 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $1,931,000 after purchasing an additional 23,340 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Halliburton by 3.7% during the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 2,257,250 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $61,375,000 after buying an additional 80,567 shares during the last quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. acquired a new position in shares of Halliburton in the 4th quarter valued at $621,000. Cary Street Partners Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 56.5% in the 3rd quarter. Cary Street Partners Asset Management LLC now owns 157,085 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $4,563,000 after buying an additional 56,707 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Wealth Management grew its position in shares of Halliburton by 180.9% in the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Wealth Management now owns 43,675 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $1,188,000 after buying an additional 28,125 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have issued reports on HAL shares. Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $43.00 to $35.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Barclays decreased their target price on Halliburton from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group cut 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. Griffin Securities downgraded Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $34.00 target price on shares of Halliburton in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Seven equities 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.com, Halliburton has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $37.42.

Halliburton Price Performance

Shares of HAL opened at $26.34 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.86 billion, a PE ratio of 9.31, a P/E/G ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.89. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $27.03 and its two-hundred day moving average is $28.73. Halliburton has a twelve month low of $25.16 and a twelve month high of $41.56. The company has a current ratio of 2.05, a quick ratio of 1.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 5th. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.03%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Eric Carre sold 141,206 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.13, for a total transaction of $3,689,712.78. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 127,101 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,321,149.13. The trade was a 52.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.61% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.