Eukles Asset Management Purchases 431 Shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Eukles Asset Management raised its holdings in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 4.2% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 10,587 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after buying an additional 431 shares during the quarter. Eukles Asset Management’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $358,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of Halliburton by 46.0% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 61,090,055 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $2,408,171,000 after purchasing an additional 19,237,784 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Halliburton in the 4th quarter valued at $400,070,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 2.7% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 100,274,105 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $3,952,805,000 after acquiring an additional 2,618,740 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 24.9% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 7,878,811 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $284,822,000 after acquiring an additional 1,568,485 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Halliburton by 116.9% during the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,483,230 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $97,889,000 after acquiring an additional 1,338,371 shares in the last quarter. 85.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Halliburton

In other Halliburton news, EVP Van H. Beckwith sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.75, for a total value of $367,500.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 273,908 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,066,119. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on HAL shares. Johnson Rice raised Halliburton to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 19th. Bank of America decreased their price target on Halliburton from $41.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. TD Cowen cut their price objective on Halliburton from $47.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Halliburton from $50.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 28th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on shares of Halliburton from $47.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Halliburton has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.88.

Halliburton Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of HAL opened at $31.09 on Monday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $32.88 and its 200-day simple moving average is $35.49. The company has a quick ratio of 1.54, a current ratio of 2.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76. The firm has a market capitalization of $27.45 billion, a PE ratio of 10.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.93. Halliburton has a 12-month low of $30.31 and a 12-month high of $43.85.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last released its earnings results on Friday, July 19th. The oilfield services company reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.80. Halliburton had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 29.97%. The company had revenue of $5.83 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.95 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.77 EPS. The company’s revenue was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Halliburton will post 3.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 25th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 4th. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.53%.

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.