Fisher Asset Management LLC Buys 84,796 Shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 20.0% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 508,889 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after acquiring an additional 84,796 shares during the quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $14,783,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in HAL. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Halliburton by 17,317.6% during the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 13,631,188 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $460,462,000 after acquiring an additional 13,552,927 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management raised its position in shares of Halliburton by 24,954.1% during the second quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 2,730,900 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $92,250,000 after acquiring an additional 2,720,000 shares during the last quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC bought a new position in shares of Halliburton during the third quarter worth about $55,132,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Halliburton by 20.0% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 10,087,115 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $340,752,000 after acquiring an additional 1,681,620 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its position in shares of 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 worth $160,367,000 after acquiring an additional 995,649 shares during the last quarter. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Halliburton Stock Up 0.3 %

HAL stock opened at $31.89 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $29.63 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $31.89. The company has a current ratio of 2.21, a quick ratio of 1.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. Halliburton has a 1-year low of $27.26 and a 1-year high of $41.56. The stock has a market cap of $28.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.11, a P/E/G ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 1.89.

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 the consensus estimate of $0.75 by ($0.02). Halliburton had a return on equity of 28.33% and a net margin of 11.04%. The business had revenue of $5.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.83 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.79 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Halliburton will post 3.01 EPS for the current year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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 of this dividend is Wednesday, December 4th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.13%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.69%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on HAL shares. Raymond James lowered their target price on Halliburton from $41.00 to $37.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 8th. Barclays lowered their target price on Halliburton from $47.00 to $43.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 8th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on Halliburton from $47.00 to $46.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Susquehanna lowered their target price on Halliburton from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $40.00 target price on shares of Halliburton in a report on Friday, November 8th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $40.74.

Halliburton Company 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.