Halliburton Company Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.17 (NYSE:HAL)

Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 4th will be paid a dividend of 0.17 per share by the oilfield services company on Wednesday, March 25th. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 4th.

Halliburton has raised its dividend payment by an average of 0.2%annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 4 years. Halliburton has a dividend payout ratio of 25.6% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Halliburton to earn $2.92 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.68 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 23.3%.

Halliburton Trading Up 1.4%

Shares of Halliburton stock traded up $0.48 on Thursday, hitting $35.25. 1,068,632 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 14,830,647. The company has a current ratio of 2.04, a quick ratio of 1.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The company has a market cap of $29.52 billion, a PE ratio of 23.42, a PEG ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 0.77. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $31.57 and its 200-day moving average price is $26.82. Halliburton has a 52 week low of $18.72 and a 52 week high of $35.61.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 21st. The oilfield services company reported $0.69 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by $0.14. Halliburton had a return on equity of 19.77% and a net margin of 5.78%.The business had revenue of $5.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.39 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.73 EPS. Halliburton’s revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Halliburton will post 2.64 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on HAL. HSBC set a $30.00 price target on Halliburton and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus set a $36.00 price target on shares of Halliburton in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Halliburton in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Halliburton from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 16th. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $35.00 price target on shares of Halliburton in a report on Monday, November 3rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have given a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $34.95.

Halliburton Company Profile

Halliburton is one of the world’s largest providers of products and services to the energy industry, offering a broad portfolio that supports the lifecycle of oil and gas reservoirs from exploration and drilling through production and abandonment. Founded in 1919 by Erle P. Halliburton as an oil-well cementing company, the firm is headquartered in Houston, Texas and has developed into an integrated oilfield services company serving upstream operators globally.

The company’s activities encompass drilling and evaluation, well construction and completion, production enhancement and well intervention.