National Pension Service Increases Stake in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

National Pension Service grew its stake in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 1.9% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,292,856 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after purchasing an additional 24,350 shares during the quarter. National Pension Service owned approximately 0.15% of Halliburton worth $37,557,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in HAL. Capital World Investors boosted its position in Halliburton by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 121,928,734 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $4,806,431,000 after buying an additional 377,500 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 2.7% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 100,274,105 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $3,952,805,000 after purchasing an additional 2,618,740 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in shares of Halliburton by 46.0% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 61,090,055 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $2,408,171,000 after purchasing an additional 19,237,784 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Halliburton by 17,317.6% during the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 13,631,188 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $460,462,000 after purchasing an additional 13,552,927 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in Halliburton by 20.0% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 10,087,115 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $340,752,000 after purchasing an additional 1,681,620 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on HAL. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Halliburton from $45.00 to $35.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $45.00 to $42.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $42.00 target price on shares of Halliburton in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of Halliburton from $46.00 to $39.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective 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. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Halliburton currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $41.74.

Halliburton Stock Up 6.9 %

NYSE:HAL opened at $30.51 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 1.54 and a current ratio of 2.13. The firm has a market cap of $26.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.14, a P/E/G ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 1.89. Halliburton has a fifty-two week low of $27.26 and a fifty-two week high of $41.56. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $29.17 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $32.62.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 25th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 4th were issued a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.23%. Halliburton’s payout ratio is currently 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.