John G Ullman & Associates Inc. Has $5.02 Million Position in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

John G Ullman & Associates Inc. grew its position in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 26.0% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 138,748 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after purchasing an additional 28,588 shares during the quarter. John G Ullman & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $5,016,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Halliburton during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $457,245,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main grew its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 123.0% during the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 15,936,342 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $627,088,000 after purchasing an additional 8,791,319 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 65.5% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 17,217,776 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $677,520,000 after purchasing an additional 6,815,373 shares during the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 140.4% during the 1st quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 3,737,112 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $118,242,000 after purchasing an additional 2,182,602 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Halliburton during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $68,873,000. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Susquehanna reissued a “positive” rating and set a $49.00 target price on shares of Halliburton in a report on Monday, April 8th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $45.00 price target on shares of Halliburton in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. StockNews.com cut shares of Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, April 14th. Raymond James decreased their price target on shares of Halliburton from $49.00 to $47.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, Atb Cap Markets cut shares of Halliburton from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 22nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $48.53.

Halliburton Stock Up 1.1 %

NYSE HAL traded up $0.43 on Friday, hitting $39.08. 6,567,621 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,103,129. The company has a market cap of $34.64 billion, a PE ratio of 13.27, a PEG ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 2.00. Halliburton has a 12 month low of $27.84 and a 12 month high of $43.85. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $37.39 and a 200-day moving average of $37.42. 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 for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.80 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $5.74 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.78 billion. Halliburton had a net margin of 11.46% and a return on equity of 31.59%. The company’s revenue was up 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.72 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Halliburton will post 3.42 earnings per share for the current year.

Halliburton Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 6th were given a $0.17 dividend. This is a positive change from Halliburton’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.16. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 5th. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.21%.

Insider Activity

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

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.