Proficio Capital Partners LLC Acquires New Stake in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 150,198 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,084,000.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in HAL. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Halliburton by 244.5% in the 3rd 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 period. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its position in Halliburton by 23.1% in the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 16,782,174 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $487,522,000 after acquiring an additional 3,150,986 shares during the period. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC purchased a new position in shares of Halliburton during the 3rd quarter worth $55,132,000. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position in shares of Halliburton by 31.3% during 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 acquiring an additional 1,214,586 shares during the period. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its stake in shares of Halliburton by 22.0% in the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 5,520,383 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $160,367,000 after purchasing an additional 995,649 shares in the last quarter. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

HAL has been the topic of several analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on Halliburton from $43.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Griffin Securities downgraded Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Halliburton from $35.00 to $33.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Raymond James cut shares of Halliburton from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Halliburton from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $37.42.

Halliburton Stock Performance

NYSE HAL opened at $24.18 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.99 billion, a PE ratio of 8.54, a P/E/G ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.89. Halliburton has a 1-year low of $23.79 and a 1-year high of $41.56. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $26.95 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $28.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 2.05 and a quick ratio of 1.54.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be given a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 5th. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.03%.

Insider Activity at Halliburton

In other Halliburton news, CFO Eric Carre sold 141,206 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.13, for a total transaction of $3,689,712.78. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly 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 legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.61% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.