Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Shares Purchased by Baird Financial Group Inc.

Baird Financial Group Inc. raised its position in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 30.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 19,255 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,549 shares during the quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $524,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Horrell Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Halliburton in the 4th quarter valued at about $33,000. Sierra Ocean LLC acquired a new position in Halliburton in the 4th quarter valued at about $36,000. Blume Capital Management Inc. grew its position in Halliburton by 33.3% in the 4th quarter. Blume Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,600 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $44,000 after acquiring an additional 400 shares in the last quarter. Wingate Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Halliburton in the 4th quarter valued at about $52,000. Finally, Quent Capital LLC grew its position in Halliburton by 261.1% in the 4th quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 2,246 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $61,000 after acquiring an additional 1,624 shares in the last quarter. 85.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Margaret Katherine Banks sold 3,900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.04, for a total value of $93,756.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 10,551 shares in the company, valued at $253,646.04. This trade represents a 26.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Timothy Mckeon sold 10,497 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.60, for a total value of $258,226.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 77,784 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,913,486.40. This represents a 11.89% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 65,576 shares of company stock worth $1,631,457. 0.61% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $34.00 price objective on shares of Halliburton in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Barclays lowered their price objective on Halliburton from $29.00 to $26.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Hsbc Global Res raised Halliburton to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Benchmark lowered their price target on Halliburton from $40.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on Halliburton from $37.00 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Halliburton has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $33.84.

Halliburton Price Performance

Shares of NYSE HAL opened at $21.03 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 2.05 and a quick ratio of 1.54. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $22.27 and a 200 day moving average price of $25.97. Halliburton has a 1-year low of $18.72 and a 1-year high of $38.35. The company has a market cap of $18.08 billion, a PE ratio of 7.43, a P/E/G ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.19.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The oilfield services company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.60. The firm had revenue of $5.42 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.28 billion. Halliburton had a return on equity of 26.03% and a net margin of 10.90%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Halliburton will post 2.64 EPS for the current year.

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.