Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. Invests $1.01 Million in Halliburton Company $HAL

Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund purchased 41,054 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,010,000.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Halliburton by 1.6% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 105,363,599 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $2,147,310,000 after purchasing an additional 1,617,696 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Halliburton by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 30,287,989 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $617,269,000 after purchasing an additional 346,218 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Halliburton by 0.4% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 22,342,963 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $453,461,000 after buying an additional 92,549 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in Halliburton by 10.1% in the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 11,903,833 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $242,600,000 after buying an additional 1,089,928 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Halliburton by 23.1% during the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 10,154,605 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $249,803,000 after buying an additional 1,906,724 shares during the period. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

HAL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Argus boosted their price target on shares of Halliburton from $31.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 23rd. HSBC set a $30.00 target price on Halliburton and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus set a $36.00 price target on Halliburton in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price objective on Halliburton from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on Halliburton from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 23rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $34.95.

Halliburton Stock Down 1.0%

Halliburton stock opened at $33.95 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $28.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.49, a P/E/G ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 0.77. The company has a current ratio of 2.04, a quick ratio of 1.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. Halliburton Company has a twelve month low of $18.72 and a twelve month high of $35.55. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $31.23 and its 200-day simple moving average is $26.55.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 21st. The oilfield services company reported $0.69 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.55 by $0.14. Halliburton had a return on equity of 19.77% and a net margin of 5.78%.The firm had revenue of $5.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.39 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.73 EPS. Halliburton’s revenue for the quarter was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Halliburton Company will post 2.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 24th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 3rd were given a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 3rd. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.0%. Halliburton’s payout ratio is currently 45.03%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Jeffrey Allen Miller sold 171,200 shares of Halliburton stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.96, for a total value of $5,985,152.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,101,243 shares in the company, valued at $38,499,455.28. The trade was a 13.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Lawrence J. Pope sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.25, for a total transaction of $3,225,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 419,800 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,538,550. This trade represents a 19.24% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 337,002 shares of company stock worth $11,445,938 in the last ninety days. 0.56% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Halliburton Profile

Halliburton is one of the world’s largest providers of products and services to the energy industry, offering a broad portfolio that supports the lifecycle of oil and gas reservoirs from exploration and drilling through production and abandonment. Founded in 1919 by Erle P. Halliburton as an oil-well cementing company, the firm is headquartered in Houston, Texas and has developed into an integrated oilfield services company serving upstream operators globally.

The company’s activities encompass drilling and evaluation, well construction and completion, production enhancement and well intervention.