MML Investors Services LLC Acquires 6,361 Shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

MML Investors Services LLC lifted its holdings in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 15.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 46,866 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,361 shares during the period. MML Investors Services LLC’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $1,274,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Horrell Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Halliburton in the 4th quarter valued at about $33,000. Sierra Ocean LLC bought a new stake in Halliburton in the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Halliburton in the fourth quarter worth about $38,000. Blume Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in Halliburton by 33.3% in the fourth quarter. Blume Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,600 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wingate Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in Halliburton in the fourth quarter worth about $52,000. Institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Halliburton

In other Halliburton news, VP Timothy Mckeon sold 10,497 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.60, for a total value of $258,226.20. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 77,784 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,913,486.40. This trade represents a 11.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Eric Carre sold 141,206 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.13, for a total value of $3,689,712.78. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 127,101 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,321,149.13. This trade represents a 52.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 206,782 shares of company stock worth $5,321,170. 0.61% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on HAL. Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $43.00 to $35.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Susquehanna decreased their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $32.00 to $30.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $29.00 to $26.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $37.00 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Halliburton from $23.00 to $22.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Halliburton has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $34.68.

Halliburton Price Performance

Shares of HAL stock opened at $19.82 on Thursday. Halliburton has a 1-year low of $18.72 and a 1-year high of $38.35. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $23.36 and its 200 day moving average is $26.59. The company has a market cap of $17.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.00, a PEG ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 2.05 and a quick ratio of 1.54.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 22nd. The oilfield services company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60. Halliburton had a return on equity of 26.03% and a net margin of 10.90%. The company had revenue of $5.42 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.28 billion. Research analysts predict that Halliburton will post 2.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th were paid a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.43%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 5th. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 28.45%.

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.