Principal Financial Group Inc. Raises Stock Holdings in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 2,889,257 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after purchasing an additional 63,994 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $83,933,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Retirement Systems of Alabama boosted its stake in shares of Halliburton by 0.3% during the third quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 195,873 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $5,690,000 after buying an additional 587 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in Halliburton by 244.5% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 4,513,560 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $138,025,000 after acquiring an additional 3,203,224 shares during the period. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in shares of Halliburton in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $358,000. World Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 49.5% in the third quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 9,161 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $266,000 after purchasing an additional 3,032 shares during the period. Finally, Sanctuary Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Halliburton by 7.4% during the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 71,788 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $2,293,000 after purchasing an additional 4,970 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $45.00 to $42.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on shares of Halliburton from $47.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Griffin Securities downgraded shares of Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. Piper Sandler initiated coverage on Halliburton in a research report on Thursday. They set an “overweight” rating and a $36.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Bank of America reduced their price target on Halliburton from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 14th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $39.58.

Halliburton Stock Performance

NYSE HAL opened at $25.97 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.62, a current ratio of 2.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. Halliburton has a fifty-two week low of $25.51 and a fifty-two week high of $41.56. The business has a fifty day moving average of $29.35 and a 200-day moving average of $31.00. The stock has a market cap of $22.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.61 and a beta of 1.90.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The oilfield services company reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.75 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $5.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.83 billion. Halliburton had a return on equity of 28.33% and a net margin of 11.04%. Halliburton’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.79 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Halliburton will post 3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 26th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 4th. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.69%.

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.