Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. Grows Stock Position in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. grew its stake in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 79.8% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 18,397 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after buying an additional 8,167 shares during the quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $500,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in HAL. Sierra Ocean LLC acquired a new position in shares of Halliburton during the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. Continuum Advisory LLC grew its holdings in Halliburton by 101.2% during the 3rd quarter. Continuum Advisory LLC now owns 1,388 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 698 shares in the last quarter. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Halliburton in the fourth quarter valued at about $38,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Halliburton by 34.2% during the third quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,618 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 412 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. lifted its position in shares of Halliburton by 28.8% in the 3rd quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 1,759 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $51,000 after buying an additional 393 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have issued reports on HAL. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Halliburton from $39.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. UBS Group lowered shares of Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the company from $36.00 to $34.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $35.00 to $33.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Benchmark decreased their target price on Halliburton from $40.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $34.00 price objective on shares of Halliburton in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $37.42.

Halliburton Trading Down 1.7 %

NYSE:HAL opened at $24.29 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $21.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 1.54 and a current ratio of 2.05. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $26.60 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $28.34. Halliburton has a 52 week low of $23.42 and a 52 week high of $41.56.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be issued a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 5th. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.03%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Margaret Katherine Banks sold 3,900 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.04, for a total transaction of $93,756.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 10,551 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $253,646.04. This trade represents a 26.99 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP Timothy Mckeon sold 10,497 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.60, for a total transaction of $258,226.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 77,784 shares in the company, valued at $1,913,486.40. This represents a 11.89 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 155,603 shares of company stock worth $4,041,695 in the last quarter. 0.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.