Polymer Capital Management US LLC Invests $269,000 in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Polymer Capital Management US LLC acquired a new position in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 9,907 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock, valued at approximately $269,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Federated Hermes Inc. increased its position in shares of Halliburton by 297.9% during the fourth quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 13,247 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $360,000 after acquiring an additional 9,918 shares during the last quarter. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Halliburton during the 4th quarter worth approximately $734,000. Ilmarinen Mutual Pension Insurance Co increased its holdings in Halliburton by 416.3% in the 4th quarter. Ilmarinen Mutual Pension Insurance Co now owns 158,744 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $4,316,000 after purchasing an additional 128,000 shares during the last quarter. Aviva PLC lifted its stake in Halliburton by 557.4% during the fourth quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 222,487 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $6,049,000 after purchasing an additional 188,645 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Halliburton during the fourth quarter worth $7,236,000. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on HAL. Griffin Securities cut Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on Halliburton from $42.00 to $37.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Benchmark reduced their price target on shares of Halliburton from $40.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Raymond James cut Halliburton from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, UBS Group lowered Halliburton from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $36.00 to $34.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $37.37.

Halliburton Price Performance

Shares of HAL opened at $19.95 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 2.05 and a quick ratio of 1.54. Halliburton has a 1-year low of $18.72 and a 1-year high of $41.56. The stock has a market cap of $17.32 billion, a PE ratio of 7.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.45. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $25.34 and a 200 day moving average price of $27.71.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th were issued a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 5th. Halliburton’s payout ratio is currently 24.03%.

Insider Activity at Halliburton

In other Halliburton news, CFO Eric Carre sold 141,206 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.13, for a total transaction of $3,689,712.78. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 127,101 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,321,149.13. This trade represents a 52.63 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Timothy Mckeon sold 10,497 shares of Halliburton stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.60, for a total transaction of $258,226.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 77,784 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,913,486.40. This represents a 11.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 206,782 shares of company stock valued at $5,321,170 in the last three months. 0.61% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.