Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. Buys 2,943 Shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 39.0% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 10,498 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,943 shares during the period. Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $305,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of HAL. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 18.1% in the 1st quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 21,162 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $834,000 after acquiring an additional 3,238 shares in the last quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Halliburton by 326.5% in the first quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 35,610 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $1,404,000 after buying an additional 27,260 shares in the last quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 64.0% in the first quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 22,681 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $894,000 after buying an additional 8,854 shares during the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC lifted its position in Halliburton by 7.5% during the 1st quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 16,159 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $637,000 after buying an additional 1,124 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. grew its holdings in Halliburton by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 417,843 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $16,471,000 after acquiring an additional 8,259 shares during the last quarter. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on HAL. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on shares of Halliburton from $47.00 to $46.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Evercore ISI dropped their target price on Halliburton from $52.00 to $48.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target on Halliburton from $47.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on Halliburton from $45.00 to $42.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Johnson Rice upgraded shares of Halliburton to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 19th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $40.79.

Halliburton Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE:HAL opened at $30.19 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $29.08 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $32.39. Halliburton has a one year low of $27.26 and a one year high of $41.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 2.21 and a quick ratio of 1.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $26.65 billion, a PE ratio of 10.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.89.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The oilfield services company reported $0.73 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.75 by ($0.02). Halliburton had a net margin of 11.04% and a return on equity of 28.33%. The company had revenue of $5.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.83 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.79 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Halliburton will post 3.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 25th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 4th were issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.25%. Halliburton’s payout ratio is 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.