Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC Purchases 2,171,722 Shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC raised its position in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 15.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 16,093,680 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,171,722 shares during the period. Halliburton comprises approximately 1.5% of Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 25th largest holding. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $437,587,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Park Avenue Securities LLC bought a new position in Halliburton in the fourth quarter worth $402,000. Merit Financial Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Halliburton by 107.8% in the 4th quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 14,487 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $394,000 after buying an additional 7,516 shares in the last quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Halliburton by 17.9% in the 4th quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 13,345 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $363,000 after buying an additional 2,030 shares in the last quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 14.3% during the 4th quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC now owns 7,974 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $217,000 after acquiring an additional 999 shares during the period. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. boosted its position in shares of Halliburton by 14.3% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 4,036 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $110,000 after acquiring an additional 505 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently issued reports on HAL. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $34.00 price target on shares of Halliburton in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Benchmark lowered their price objective on Halliburton from $40.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Citigroup cut their target price on Halliburton from $33.00 to $31.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Halliburton from $29.00 to $27.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Halliburton from $34.00 to $28.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 16th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Halliburton currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $33.53.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Eric Carre sold 51,179 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.00, for a total value of $1,279,475.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 127,101 shares in the company, valued at $3,177,525. This trade represents a 28.71% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Margaret Katherine Banks sold 3,900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.04, for a total value of $93,756.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 10,551 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $253,646.04. This represents a 26.99% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 65,576 shares of company stock valued at $1,631,457. 0.56% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Halliburton Stock Performance

Shares of Halliburton stock opened at $19.95 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 2.05 and a quick ratio of 1.54. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $21.84 and a 200 day simple moving average of $25.72. Halliburton has a fifty-two week low of $18.72 and a fifty-two week high of $37.08. The firm has a market cap of $17.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.05, a P/E/G ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.19.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The oilfield services company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.60. The company had revenue of $5.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.28 billion. Halliburton had a return on equity of 26.03% and a net margin of 10.90%. Sell-side analysts predict that Halliburton will post 2.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 25th. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 4th will be given a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.41%. Halliburton’s payout ratio is 28.45%.

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.