CWA Asset Management Group LLC Lowers Stake in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

CWA Asset Management Group LLC decreased its position in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 17.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 144,749 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after selling 31,087 shares during the period. CWA Asset Management Group LLC’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $3,936,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 13,552,927 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 244.5% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 4,513,560 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $138,025,000 after buying an additional 3,203,224 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management lifted its position in shares of Halliburton by 24,954.1% during the second quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 2,730,900 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $92,250,000 after purchasing an additional 2,720,000 shares in the last quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC purchased a new position in Halliburton in the 3rd quarter valued at about $55,132,000. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake 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 in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Halliburton Trading Up 0.9 %

Halliburton stock traded up $0.25 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $27.93. The stock had a trading volume of 2,157,147 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,955,125. The company has a current ratio of 2.21, a quick ratio of 1.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.54 billion, a PE ratio of 9.73, a P/E/G ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 1.91. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $29.02 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $30.51. Halliburton has a 12 month low of $25.51 and a 12 month high of $41.56.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last released 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). The company had revenue of $5.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.83 billion. Halliburton had a return on equity of 28.33% and a net margin of 11.04%. Halliburton’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.79 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Halliburton will post 3 EPS for the current year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 26th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 4th were paid a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 4th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.43%. Halliburton’s payout ratio is 23.69%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on HAL. UBS Group downgraded 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. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Halliburton from $39.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $45.00 to $42.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Piper Sandler assumed coverage on shares of Halliburton in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $36.00 price target for the company. Finally, Benchmark restated a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price target on shares of Halliburton in a report on Friday, November 8th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $38.95.

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.