Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Acquires 6,258 Shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC increased its holdings in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 4.3% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 152,741 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after buying an additional 6,258 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $4,437,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Arcadia Investment Management Corp MI increased its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 126.2% during the third quarter. Arcadia Investment Management Corp MI now owns 50,205 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $1,458,000 after buying an additional 28,010 shares in the last quarter. Stephens Inc. AR boosted its holdings in Halliburton by 11.5% in the third quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 105,240 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $3,057,000 after acquiring an additional 10,831 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE increased its position in shares of Halliburton by 7.0% during the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 148,722 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $4,320,000 after acquiring an additional 9,721 shares in the last quarter. HM Payson & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 3.1% in the third quarter. HM Payson & Co. now owns 26,400 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $767,000 after purchasing an additional 800 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Argyle Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Halliburton by 3.9% during the 3rd quarter. Argyle Capital Management Inc. now owns 53,825 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $1,564,000 after purchasing an additional 2,000 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have commented on HAL. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on shares of Halliburton from $47.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Halliburton from $46.00 to $39.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on Halliburton from $47.00 to $46.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered shares of Halliburton from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $44.00 to $37.00 in a report on Friday, September 13th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of Halliburton from $41.00 to $37.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $40.79.

Halliburton Price Performance

HAL stock opened at $29.23 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 1.54 and a current ratio of 2.13. Halliburton has a one year low of $27.26 and a one year high of $41.56. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $29.10 and its 200-day moving average price is $32.53. The company has a market capitalization of $25.81 billion, a PE ratio of 9.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 1.89.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The oilfield services company reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by ($0.02). Halliburton had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 29.97%. The company had revenue of $5.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.83 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.79 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Halliburton will post 3.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 25th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th were issued a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.33%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 4th. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is 22.59%.

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.