Van ECK Associates Corp Raises Holdings in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 31.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,100,693 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after buying an additional 1,214,586 shares during the quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp owned approximately 0.58% of Halliburton worth $138,688,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. CWM LLC boosted its position in Halliburton by 11.1% during the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 32,366 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $940,000 after purchasing an additional 3,224 shares in the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC boosted its position in Halliburton by 26.0% during the third quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 9,855 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $286,000 after purchasing an additional 2,034 shares in the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC boosted its position in Halliburton by 203.8% during the third quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 21,866 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $635,000 after purchasing an additional 14,668 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning boosted its position in Halliburton by 11.9% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 173,555 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $5,042,000 after purchasing an additional 18,396 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vontobel Holding Ltd. boosted its position in Halliburton by 63.0% during the third quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 57,064 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $1,658,000 after purchasing an additional 22,047 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Halliburton

In other news, CFO Eric Carre sold 141,206 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.13, for a total transaction of $3,689,712.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 127,101 shares in the company, valued at $3,321,149.13. This trade represents a 52.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Griffin Securities downgraded Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on Halliburton from $42.00 to $37.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $34.00 target price on shares of Halliburton in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Raymond James cut Halliburton from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Halliburton from $39.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $37.42.

Halliburton Price Performance

HAL stock opened at $26.27 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $27.43 and a two-hundred day moving average of $29.22. The company has a quick ratio of 1.54, a current ratio of 2.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The stock has a market cap of $23.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.53 and a beta of 1.89. Halliburton has a 52-week low of $25.16 and a 52-week high of $41.56.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.59%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.03%.

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.