AQR Capital Management LLC Purchases 871,789 Shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 127.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,557,130 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after buying an additional 871,789 shares during the quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC owned 0.18% of Halliburton worth $52,600,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased its stake in Halliburton by 146.0% in the second quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 842,355 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $28,455,000 after acquiring an additional 500,000 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Halliburton by 319.0% in the 1st quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 36,956 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $1,385,000 after purchasing an additional 28,137 shares during the period. Mediolanum International Funds Ltd bought a new position in shares of Halliburton during the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,908,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Halliburton by 10.9% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 8,350 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $329,000 after buying an additional 819 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stephens Inc. AR grew its position in Halliburton by 622.1% in the fourth quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 66,741 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $2,413,000 after acquiring an additional 57,499 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on HAL shares. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Halliburton from $46.00 to $39.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Johnson Rice upgraded shares of Halliburton to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 19th. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $42.00 price objective on shares of Halliburton in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Halliburton from $45.00 to $35.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered Halliburton from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $44.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $42.56.

Insider Transactions at Halliburton

In related news, EVP Van H. Beckwith sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.75, for a total value of $367,500.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 273,908 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,066,119. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

Halliburton Trading Up 3.0 %

HAL opened at $28.65 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $30.82 and a 200 day simple moving average of $34.60. Halliburton has a fifty-two week low of $27.52 and a fifty-two week high of $43.85. The company has a market cap of $25.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 2.13 and a quick ratio of 1.54.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 19th. The oilfield services company reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.80. Halliburton had a return on equity of 29.97% and a net margin of 11.61%. The company had revenue of $5.83 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.95 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.77 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Halliburton will post 3.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 25th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th were issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.37%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 4th. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.53%.

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.