Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Position Lifted by Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc.

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 3.6% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 5,435,299 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after acquiring an additional 187,150 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $147,786,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of HAL. Mediolanum International Funds Ltd raised its stake in Halliburton by 48.2% during 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 buying an additional 23,340 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 2,257,250 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $61,375,000 after acquiring an additional 80,567 shares during the last quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. acquired a new stake in shares of Halliburton during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $621,000. Massachusetts Wealth Management lifted its stake in Halliburton by 180.9% during the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Wealth Management now owns 43,675 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $1,188,000 after purchasing an additional 28,125 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake 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 worth $487,522,000 after purchasing an additional 3,150,986 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have weighed in on HAL shares. Benchmark dropped their target price on shares of Halliburton from $40.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $43.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Halliburton from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 18th. Raymond James downgraded Halliburton from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Halliburton from $39.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Halliburton currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $37.42.

Insider Buying and Selling at Halliburton

In other Halliburton news, CFO Eric Carre sold 141,206 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.13, for a total value of $3,689,712.78. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 127,101 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,321,149.13. This represents a 52.63 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Margaret Katherine Banks sold 3,900 shares of Halliburton stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.04, for a total transaction of $93,756.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 10,551 shares in the company, valued at $253,646.04. This represents a 26.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.61% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Halliburton Trading Up 2.3 %

Shares of NYSE:HAL opened at $25.00 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $26.81 and a 200-day moving average of $28.52. The company has a current ratio of 2.05, a quick ratio of 1.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The firm has a market cap of $21.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.83, a P/E/G ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.84. Halliburton has a twelve month low of $23.42 and a twelve month high of $41.56.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be given a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.72%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.03%.

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.