Cornerstone Advisors LLC Invests $185,000 in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Cornerstone Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 4,700 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock, valued at approximately $185,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Capital World Investors increased its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 121,551,234 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $4,394,077,000 after buying an additional 479,877 shares during the period. Sanders Capital LLC lifted its position in Halliburton by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 23,538,783 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $850,927,000 after purchasing an additional 782,093 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Halliburton during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $400,070,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 24.9% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 7,878,811 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $284,822,000 after purchasing an additional 1,568,485 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Halliburton by 18.3% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 6,217,704 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $224,770,000 after buying an additional 962,547 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Halliburton Stock Performance

Halliburton stock traded down $2.04 during trading on Friday, reaching $34.40. The company had a trading volume of 18,696,859 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,952,106. The firm has a market capitalization of $30.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 1.93. The company has a current ratio of 2.12, a quick ratio of 1.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $34.85 and its 200 day simple moving average is $36.12. Halliburton has a 52 week low of $32.60 and a 52 week high of $43.85.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 19th. The oilfield services company reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.80. Halliburton had a return on equity of 30.84% and a net margin of 11.20%. The firm had revenue of $5.83 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.95 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.77 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Halliburton will post 3.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 5th were issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.98%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 5th. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.53%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Van H. Beckwith sold 10,000 shares of Halliburton stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.92, for a total transaction of $369,200.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 283,908 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,481,883.36. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, insider Jeffrey Shannon Slocum sold 38,941 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.92, for a total transaction of $1,437,701.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 130,783 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,828,508.36. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Van H. Beckwith sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.92, for a total transaction of $369,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 283,908 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,481,883.36. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 52,287 shares of company stock worth $1,930,704 over the last three months. 0.61% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on HAL shares. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and set a $45.00 price target on shares of Halliburton in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on Halliburton from $46.00 to $48.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. Citigroup lowered their price objective on Halliburton from $50.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, June 28th. StockNews.com cut shares of Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Finally, TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of Halliburton from $47.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $47.75.

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.