Banco Santander S.A. Purchases New Shares in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Banco Santander S.A. purchased a new position in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 450,446 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,085,000.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Country Trust Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Halliburton during the third quarter worth about $36,000. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC increased its stake in Halliburton by 274.9% during the 2nd quarter. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC now owns 1,121 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $38,000 after buying an additional 822 shares in the last quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Halliburton during the third quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Crewe Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Halliburton in the first quarter valued at approximately $46,000. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Halliburton by 34.2% in the third quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,618 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $47,000 after acquiring an additional 412 shares during the last quarter. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

HAL has been the topic of several recent research reports. Bank of America lowered their target price on shares of Halliburton from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 14th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on shares of Halliburton from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Susquehanna dropped their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Dbs Bank assumed coverage on shares of Halliburton in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $45.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered Halliburton from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $44.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $40.74.

Halliburton Price Performance

Shares of HAL opened at $31.46 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $29.29 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $32.07. The stock has a market cap of $27.64 billion, a PE ratio of 10.86, a P/E/G ratio of 3.75 and a beta of 1.89. Halliburton has a 1-year low of $27.26 and a 1-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 1.62.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The oilfield services company reported $0.73 earnings per share 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.83 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.79 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Halliburton will post 3.01 EPS for the current year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 26th. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.16%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 4th. Halliburton’s payout ratio is 23.69%.

Halliburton Company 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.