Ieq Capital LLC Purchases 9,072 Shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Ieq Capital LLC raised its position in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 21.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 51,330 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after purchasing an additional 9,072 shares during the quarter. Ieq Capital LLC’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $1,396,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in HAL. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake 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 worth $138,025,000 after purchasing an additional 3,203,224 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Halliburton by 23.1% during the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 16,782,174 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $487,522,000 after buying an additional 3,150,986 shares during the period. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC bought a new stake in shares of Halliburton in the 3rd quarter valued at about $55,132,000. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position in shares of Halliburton by 31.3% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 5,100,693 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $138,688,000 after buying an additional 1,214,586 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its stake in shares of Halliburton by 22.0% in 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 period. 85.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Eric Carre sold 141,206 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

Halliburton Trading Up 1.9 %

HAL opened at $26.76 on Tuesday. Halliburton has a fifty-two week low of $25.16 and a fifty-two week high of $41.56. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.23 billion, a PE ratio of 9.45, a P/E/G ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.89. 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 company’s 50-day moving average is $27.04 and its 200 day moving average is $28.87.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be issued a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.54%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.03%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently commented on HAL shares. Benchmark reduced their target price on Halliburton from $40.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Griffin Securities lowered shares of Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Susquehanna decreased their price target on Halliburton from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Halliburton from $35.00 to $33.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $37.42.

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.