Wedge Capital Management L L P NC Has $19.06 Million Stock Position in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Wedge Capital Management L L P NC decreased its position in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 2.1% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 700,963 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after selling 15,397 shares during the period. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $19,059,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Empirical Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Halliburton in the fourth quarter valued at $288,000. Central Valley Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. Central Valley Advisors LLC now owns 50,989 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $1,386,000 after acquiring an additional 2,051 shares during the last quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. lifted its position in Halliburton by 48.2% in the 4th quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. now owns 10,443 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $284,000 after acquiring an additional 3,398 shares in the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC acquired a new position in Halliburton during the 4th quarter valued at about $402,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings in Halliburton by 74.3% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 523,831 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $14,243,000 after purchasing an additional 223,379 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Halliburton Trading Up 2.3 %

Shares of HAL stock opened at $29.96 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $26.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.44, a PEG ratio of 3.36 and a beta of 1.91. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $28.93 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $30.18. Halliburton has a 1 year low of $25.51 and a 1 year high of $41.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 2.21 and a quick ratio of 1.62.

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). Halliburton had a net margin of 11.04% and a return on equity of 28.33%. The company had revenue of $5.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.83 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.79 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Halliburton will post 2.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 26th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 4th were given a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, December 4th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.27%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.69%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

HAL has been the topic of several analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on Halliburton from $43.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. UBS Group downgraded shares of Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $36.00 to $34.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Halliburton from $35.00 to $33.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Halliburton from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 18th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $38.26.

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.