KBC Group NV Acquires 23,805 Shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

KBC Group NV boosted its stake in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL - Free Report) by 43.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 79,190 shares of the oilfield services company's stock after acquiring an additional 23,805 shares during the period. KBC Group NV's holdings in Halliburton were worth $2,300,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Capital World Investors raised its position in shares of Halliburton by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 121,928,734 shares of the oilfield services company's stock worth $4,806,431,000 after acquiring an additional 377,500 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in Halliburton by 46.0% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 61,090,055 shares of the oilfield services company's stock worth $2,408,171,000 after purchasing an additional 19,237,784 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Halliburton by 17,317.6% in the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 13,631,188 shares of the oilfield services company's stock valued at $460,462,000 after buying an additional 13,552,927 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 20.0% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 10,087,115 shares of the oilfield services company's stock worth $340,752,000 after buying an additional 1,681,620 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 7,342,857 shares of the oilfield services company's stock worth $248,042,000 after buying an additional 83,894 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.23% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on HAL. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price 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. Bank of America dropped their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, October 14th. Royal Bank of Canada downgraded Halliburton from an "outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and reduced their target price for the company from $44.00 to $37.00 in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Susquehanna dropped their price target on Halliburton from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a "positive" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on Halliburton from $47.00 to $40.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Halliburton presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $40.74.

Halliburton Stock Performance

NYSE HAL traded up $0.02 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $30.47. 9,372,300 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,093,597. The company has a quick ratio of 1.62, a current ratio of 2.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $26.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.61, a P/E/G ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 1.89. Halliburton has a 1 year low of $27.26 and a 1 year high of $41.56. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $29.18 and its 200-day simple moving average is $32.12.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The oilfield services company reported $0.73 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.75 by ($0.02). Halliburton had a return on equity of 28.33% and a net margin of 11.04%. The company had revenue of $5.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.83 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.79 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Halliburton will post 3.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 26th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 4th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.23%. 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.