Cerity Partners LLC Acquires 207,838 Shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Cerity Partners LLC increased its holdings in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 84.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 453,649 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after acquiring an additional 207,838 shares during the quarter. Cerity Partners LLC owned about 0.05% of Halliburton worth $13,179,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Halliburton by 23.1% during the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 16,782,174 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $487,522,000 after purchasing an additional 3,150,986 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Halliburton by 20.0% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 10,087,115 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $340,752,000 after buying an additional 1,681,620 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in Halliburton by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 7,342,857 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $248,042,000 after buying an additional 83,894 shares in the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its stake 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 valued at $160,367,000 after buying an additional 995,649 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brandes Investment Partners LP boosted its holdings in Halliburton by 15.1% in the second quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP now owns 4,279,478 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $144,516,000 after acquiring an additional 560,325 shares in the last quarter. 85.23% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $40.00 price target on shares of Halliburton in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on shares of Halliburton from $47.00 to $46.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Bank of America reduced their price target on shares of Halliburton from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Halliburton from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered Halliburton from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $44.00 to $37.00 in a report on Friday, September 13th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $40.74.

Halliburton Price Performance

Shares of Halliburton stock opened at $32.00 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $28.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.15, a P/E/G ratio of 3.93 and a beta of 1.89. 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 stock’s fifty day moving average is $29.52 and its 200 day moving average is $31.93. Halliburton has a one year low of $27.26 and a one year high of $41.56.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The oilfield services company reported $0.73 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $5.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.83 billion. Halliburton had a net margin of 11.04% and a return on equity of 28.33%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.79 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Halliburton will post 3.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 26th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 4th will be given a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 4th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.13%. Halliburton’s payout ratio is currently 23.69%.

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.