Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. Grows Holdings in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 0.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 274,515 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,396 shares during the quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $7,464,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Horrell Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Halliburton in the 4th quarter valued at about $33,000. Sierra Ocean LLC bought a new stake in shares of Halliburton during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Halliburton in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Continuum Advisory LLC grew its stake in Halliburton by 101.2% in the third quarter. Continuum Advisory LLC now owns 1,388 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 698 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Blume Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in Halliburton by 33.3% during the 4th quarter. Blume Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,600 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the period. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Halliburton

In other Halliburton news, CFO Eric Carre sold 141,206 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,321,149.13. This trade represents a 52.63 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP Timothy Mckeon sold 10,497 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.60, for a total transaction of $258,226.20. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 77,784 shares in the company, valued at $1,913,486.40. The trade was a 11.89 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 206,782 shares of company stock worth $5,321,170. 0.61% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Halliburton Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of Halliburton stock opened at $25.37 on Tuesday. Halliburton has a 12-month low of $23.42 and a 12-month high of $41.56. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $25.89 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $27.93. The company has a current ratio of 2.05, a quick ratio of 1.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.97, a PEG ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.84.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th were given a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.68%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.03%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on HAL shares. Benchmark dropped their price target on Halliburton from $40.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. UBS Group cut shares of Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $36.00 to $34.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of Halliburton from $39.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Griffin Securities cut shares of Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $30.00 to $29.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $37.37.

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.