Guinness Asset Management LTD Decreases Stake in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Guinness Asset Management LTD lowered its stake in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 13.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 307,773 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after selling 46,410 shares during the period. Guinness Asset Management LTD’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $8,349,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Halliburton by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 20,630,361 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $597,234,000 after buying an additional 172,505 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Halliburton by 23.1% in the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 16,782,174 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $487,522,000 after acquiring an additional 3,150,986 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its position in shares of Halliburton by 2.1% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,742,352 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $166,815,000 after acquiring an additional 115,504 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its stake in Halliburton by 22.0% during the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 5,520,383 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $160,367,000 after acquiring an additional 995,649 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in Halliburton by 244.5% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 4,513,560 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $138,025,000 after purchasing an additional 3,203,224 shares in the last quarter. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on HAL shares. Barclays restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $33.00 price target (down from $43.00) on shares of Halliburton in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. UBS Group lowered 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 note on Monday, December 9th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on Halliburton from $45.00 to $42.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $43.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 target price on shares of Halliburton in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $38.26.

Halliburton Stock Performance

Shares of HAL stock opened at $29.96 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 1.62 and a current ratio of 2.21. Halliburton has a fifty-two week low of $25.51 and a fifty-two week high of $41.56. The company has a market capitalization of $26.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.44, a PEG ratio of 3.36 and a beta of 1.91. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $28.94 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $30.13.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The oilfield services company reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $5.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.83 billion. Halliburton had a return on equity of 28.33% and a net margin of 11.04%. Halliburton’s revenue was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.79 EPS. Analysts expect that Halliburton will post 2.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 26th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 4th were given a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 4th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.27%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.69%.

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.