BankPlus Trust Department Buys Shares of 2,397 Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

BankPlus Trust Department bought a new stake in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 2,397 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock, valued at approximately $65,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of HAL. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in Halliburton by 1,227.7% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 300,452 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $8,728,000 after purchasing an additional 277,823 shares in the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP grew its stake in Halliburton by 5.9% in the third quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 8,212 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $239,000 after purchasing an additional 454 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its stake in Halliburton by 18.8% in the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 71,206 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $2,040,000 after purchasing an additional 11,276 shares in the last quarter. PFG Investments LLC purchased a new position in Halliburton in the third quarter valued at about $282,000. Finally, Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC grew its stake in Halliburton by 13.5% in the third quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 101,179 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $2,939,000 after purchasing an additional 12,067 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Halliburton

In other news, CFO Eric Carre sold 141,206 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.13, for a total value 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 represents a 52.63 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

Halliburton Trading Down 1.9 %

Halliburton stock opened at $26.25 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $27.02 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $28.83. 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 $22.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.89. Halliburton has a 12 month low of $25.16 and a 12 month high of $41.56.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be issued a $0.17 dividend. 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%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on HAL. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on Halliburton from $42.00 to $37.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Barclays decreased their price target on Halliburton from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Raymond James downgraded Halliburton from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on Halliburton from $43.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, UBS Group downgraded Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $36.00 to $34.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Halliburton presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $37.42.

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.