Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Buys 2,166,703 Shares of Halliburton Company $HAL

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) by 1,375.4% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,324,233 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after buying an additional 2,166,703 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A.’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $90,622,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Halliburton in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,054,000. Impala Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Halliburton during the third quarter valued at approximately $2,091,000. QV Investors Inc. purchased a new stake in Halliburton in the fourth quarter worth $3,195,000. Sanders Capital LLC grew its stake in Halliburton by 9.4% in the third quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 26,004,682 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $639,715,000 after purchasing an additional 2,238,983 shares during the period. Finally, ABN Amro Investment Solutions bought a new position in Halliburton in the fourth quarter worth $827,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have commented on HAL shares. Zephirin Group raised their price objective on Halliburton from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Rothschild & Co Redburn upped their target price on shares of Halliburton from $40.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 15th. TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of Halliburton from $40.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 22nd. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of Halliburton from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 13th. Finally, Susquehanna boosted their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 7th. Eighteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Halliburton has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $43.27.

Insider Buying and Selling at Halliburton

In other Halliburton news, VP Timothy Mckeon sold 8,655 shares of Halliburton stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.00, for a total value of $363,510.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president directly owned 72,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,064,992. The trade was a 10.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Van H. Beckwith sold 198,349 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.29, for a total transaction of $8,189,830.21. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 146,186 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,036,019.94. This represents a 57.57% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 416,710 shares of company stock worth $16,888,735 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.57% of the company’s stock.

Halliburton Trading Down 3.3%

NYSE HAL opened at $33.96 on Thursday. Halliburton Company has a 12 month low of $20.09 and a 12 month high of $43.59. The stock has a market cap of $28.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.66, a P/E/G ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 0.69. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $39.47 and its 200-day moving average price is $35.61. The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 1.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 21st. The oilfield services company reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.50 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $5.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.37 billion. Halliburton had a return on equity of 19.04% and a net margin of 6.95%.Halliburton’s quarterly revenue was down .3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.60 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Halliburton Company will post 2.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 24th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 3rd. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 37.36%.

Halliburton Company 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.