Manning & Napier Advisors LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Manning & Napier Advisors LLC lowered its stake in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 3.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 298,411 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after selling 11,407 shares during the quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $8,114,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Hantz Financial Services Inc. increased its stake in shares of Halliburton by 237.2% during the fourth quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 22,639 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $616,000 after purchasing an additional 15,925 shares in the last quarter. Foster Victor Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Halliburton by 14.8% in the 4th quarter. Foster Victor Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 523,390 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $15,649,000 after buying an additional 67,495 shares during the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. increased its stake in Halliburton by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 83,077 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $2,259,000 after buying an additional 3,287 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 10.4% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 18,530,937 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $503,856,000 after acquiring an additional 1,748,763 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA purchased a new position in shares of Halliburton in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $351,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently commented on HAL shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Halliburton from $35.00 to $33.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on shares of Halliburton from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $34.00 price target on shares of Halliburton in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $39.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, UBS Group lowered shares of Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $36.00 to $34.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $37.42.

Halliburton Stock Performance

NYSE:HAL opened at $26.35 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.31, a PEG ratio of 3.58 and a beta of 1.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 1.62 and a current ratio of 2.05. Halliburton has a fifty-two week low of $25.51 and a fifty-two week high of $41.56. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $28.67 and a 200 day moving average price of $29.85.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last issued 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). Halliburton had a net margin of 10.90% and a return on equity of 26.03%. The firm had revenue of $5.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.83 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.79 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Halliburton will post 2.94 EPS for the current year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 26th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 4th were given a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, December 4th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.58%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.03%.

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.