South Dakota Investment Council Acquires 9,194 Shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

South Dakota Investment Council lifted its holdings in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 1.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 651,939 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after purchasing an additional 9,194 shares during the period. South Dakota Investment Council’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $17,726,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. MidWestOne Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 4.4% during the 3rd quarter. MidWestOne Financial Group Inc. now owns 8,610 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $250,000 after purchasing an additional 359 shares during the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board boosted its position in Halliburton by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 154,210 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $4,480,000 after buying an additional 390 shares during the period. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. boosted its position in Halliburton by 28.8% during the 3rd quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 1,759 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $51,000 after buying an additional 393 shares during the period. HBW Advisory Services LLC boosted its position in Halliburton by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. HBW Advisory Services LLC now owns 10,504 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $286,000 after buying an additional 397 shares during the period. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Halliburton by 34.2% during the 3rd quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,618 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $47,000 after buying an additional 412 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Halliburton Stock Performance

Shares of HAL stock opened at $26.25 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.54, a current ratio of 2.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.78 billion, a PE ratio of 9.27, a P/E/G ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.89. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $27.06 and a 200-day moving average price of $28.91. Halliburton has a 52 week low of $25.16 and a 52 week high of $41.56.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be issued a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.59%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 5th. Halliburton’s payout ratio is 24.03%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Halliburton news, CFO Eric Carre sold 141,206 shares of Halliburton stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.13, for a total transaction of $3,689,712.78. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 127,101 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,321,149.13. The trade was a 52.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.61% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have weighed in on HAL. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on shares of Halliburton from $42.00 to $37.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Halliburton from $35.00 to $33.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Griffin Securities cut shares of Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. UBS Group cut shares of Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $36.00 to $34.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $34.00 price target on shares of Halliburton in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $37.42.

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.