Halliburton Company (NYSE: HAL) saw shares initially trade down with the broad market this morning, although shares have recovered and are now up over 1% at $39.87 in early trading. The oilfield services giant posted above-expectation earnings over the weekend. Now that Halliburton is beginning to be thought of more of an overseas-based operator, the company posted its actual earnings on Sunday.
Its net income for the quarter was $727 million, or $0.79 per diluted share. This compares to net income of $611 million, or $0.58 per diluted share, in the third quarter of 2006. First Call estimates were $0.64 EPS. Included was a $0.15 per share favorable income tax impact from the ability to recognize United States foreign tax credits that were previously assumed would not be fully utilizable and $0.02 per share after-tax charges for additional reserves related to environmental matters. This would put the comparable number at $0.66 EPS versus the $0.64 estimate. Halliburton's consolidated revenues were $3.9 billion, compared to estimates of $3.87 billion. As a result of Halliburton's organizational restructuring during the third quarter of 2007, the company is now reporting two operating segments: the Completion and Production (C&P) segment and the Drilling and Evaluation (D&E) segment.
During the third quarter, Halliburton purchased approximately 11 million shares at an average price of $33.71 for a total cost of approximately $374 million. Since the inception of the program, Halliburton has purchased 77 million shares for a total cost of approximately $2.6 billion. There is approximately $2.4 billion remaining under the program.
At the current $39 level of the stock, Halliburton still has quite a ways to run before hitting those $45 analyst average price targets. It still has a long way to go to catch up to its sector after woes in the US and after contract problems in Iraq over the last 3 years. Over the last two years, the Oil Services HOLDRs (AMEX: OIH) ETF has risen more than 80%, basically twice as much as the run in Halliburton.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-22-2007 @ 1:25PM
Sercaux said...
With oil booming and $100 a barrel seeming likely in the near future, the fact that Halliburton made a profit shouldn't be a surprise. Halliburton's tremendous ties across the energy industry and related industries (plus those gov. connections) give it an extreme advantage http://www.newsvisual.com/newsvisual/2007/10/halliburtons-co.html