Retirement Systems of Alabama Grows Stock Position in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Retirement Systems of Alabama boosted its position in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 195,873 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after buying an additional 587 shares during the quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $5,690,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in Halliburton by 3.1% in the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 22,629 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $764,000 after purchasing an additional 675 shares during the period. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 0.5% in the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 93,233 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $3,149,000 after buying an additional 441 shares during the period. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Halliburton during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $330,000. &PARTNERS boosted its holdings in Halliburton by 17.6% during the 2nd quarter. &PARTNERS now owns 15,845 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $535,000 after acquiring an additional 2,373 shares during the period. Finally, New York State Teachers Retirement System grew its position in Halliburton by 4.1% in the 2nd quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 945,773 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $31,948,000 after acquiring an additional 37,613 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Halliburton Stock Performance

HAL stock opened at $26.15 on Thursday. Halliburton has a one year low of $26.11 and a one year high of $41.56. The firm has a market cap of $22.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.11, a PEG ratio of 3.61 and a beta of 1.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 1.62 and a current ratio of 2.21. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $29.55 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $31.12.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The oilfield services company reported $0.73 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by ($0.02). Halliburton had a net margin of 11.04% and a return on equity of 28.33%. The firm had revenue of $5.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.83 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.79 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Halliburton will post 3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 26th. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 4th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.60%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.69%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

HAL has been the subject of several research analyst reports. UBS Group downgraded Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $36.00 to $34.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Raymond James decreased their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $41.00 to $37.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 8th. Benchmark restated a “buy” rating and issued a $40.00 target price on shares of Halliburton in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Royal Bank of Canada downgraded shares of Halliburton from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $44.00 to $37.00 in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Halliburton from $39.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $39.79.

Halliburton 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.