Prudential Financial Inc. Acquires 34,782 Shares of Halliburton Company $HAL

Prudential Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) by 7.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 504,041 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after purchasing an additional 34,782 shares during the period. Prudential Financial Inc.’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $10,272,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. AE Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Halliburton by 5.1% in the first quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC now owns 12,469 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $316,000 after buying an additional 605 shares during the period. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. raised its position in shares of Halliburton by 27.3% in the 1st quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 48,993 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $1,243,000 after acquiring an additional 10,507 shares in the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. lifted its position in Halliburton by 8.9% during the first quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 69,211 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $1,756,000 after buying an additional 5,655 shares during the period. HB Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Halliburton by 14.0% during the 1st quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 15,211 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $386,000 after acquiring an additional 1,866 shares during the period. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 6.3% during the first quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 393,469 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $9,982,000 after purchasing an additional 23,179 shares during the last quarter. 85.23% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on HAL. Zephirin Group upped their target price on shares of Halliburton from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. Zacks Research upgraded Halliburton from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 23rd. Royal Bank Of Canada raised shares of Halliburton from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Finally, Rothschild Redb upgraded Halliburton to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 3rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $31.55.

Halliburton Trading Up 0.4%

HAL opened at $25.80 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $21.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.08 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $25.33 and a 200 day moving average of $22.83. Halliburton Company has a 12 month low of $18.72 and a 12 month high of $32.56.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 21st. The oilfield services company reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.50 by $0.08. Halliburton had a return on equity of 20.12% and a net margin of 5.91%.The company had revenue of $5.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.39 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.73 EPS. Halliburton’s quarterly revenue was down 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Halliburton Company will post 2.64 EPS for the current year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 24th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 3rd. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.6%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is currently 45.03%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Halliburton news, insider Mark Richard sold 160,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.77, for a total value of $4,443,200.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 452,374 shares in the company, valued at $12,562,425.98. This trade represents a 26.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.56% of the stock is owned by company 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.