Cullen Investment Group LTD. Takes $2.14 Million Position in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Cullen Investment Group LTD. acquired a new position in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 59,202 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,140,000.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of HAL. Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Halliburton in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,915,000. Vontobel Holding Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 65.4% in the 4th quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 57,920 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $2,094,000 after acquiring an additional 22,906 shares during the last quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new stake in shares of Halliburton in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,956,000. ORG Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 28.6% in the 4th quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 4,236 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $153,000 after acquiring an additional 941 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Valeo Financial Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Halliburton by 7.2% during the 4th quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC now owns 9,524 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $344,000 after buying an additional 640 shares during the last quarter. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Halliburton Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:HAL traded up $0.22 on Monday, hitting $39.89. The company had a trading volume of 1,019,246 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,116,900. The business has a 50 day moving average of $37.09 and a 200 day moving average of $37.44. Halliburton has a 52-week low of $27.84 and a 52-week high of $43.85. The company has a market cap of $35.36 billion, a PE ratio of 13.54, a PEG ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 2.00. The company has a current ratio of 2.06, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 23rd. The oilfield services company reported $0.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.80 by $0.06. Halliburton had a return on equity of 31.59% and a net margin of 11.46%. The business had revenue of $5.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.78 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.72 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Halliburton will post 3.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 27th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 6th were issued a $0.17 dividend. This is an increase from Halliburton’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.16. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.70%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.21%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on HAL. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $44.00 to $48.00 in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Atb Cap Markets cut shares of Halliburton from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $45.00 target price on shares of Halliburton in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Susquehanna reiterated a “positive” rating and set a $49.00 price objective on shares of Halliburton in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $55.00 to $54.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $48.53.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Jeffrey Allen Miller sold 377,000 shares of Halliburton stock in a transaction on Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.30, for a total transaction of $13,308,100.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 759,015 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,793,229.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Jeffrey Allen Miller sold 377,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.30, for a total value of $13,308,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 759,015 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,793,229.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Margaret Katherine Banks sold 5,000 shares of Halliburton stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.30, for a total value of $176,500.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 9,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $339,762.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

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.