Halliburton Earnings Fail to Impress Investors

Adjusted earnings do not include a $0.04 restructuring charge related to layoffs and asset write-downs totaling $38 million.

The company did not provide guidance in its earnings release, but the fourth-quarter consensus estimates call for EPS of $1.01 on revenues of $7.84 billion. For the full year, EPS is estimated at $3.20 on revenues of $29.59 billion.

Halliburton said that its income from operations in the eastern hemisphere, which includes its Middle East/Asia and Europe/Africa/CIS groups, grew by 30% sequentially and 17% year-over-year. In Latin America, revenue was up 6% sequentially and adjusted operating income rose 57%, primarily due to higher consulting and software revenue from Mexico.

In North America, revenues grew by 2% sequentially and operating income rose 4%. Halliburton singled out the disruption to operations caused by the flooding in Colorado as an offset to recovery in Canada and increased activity in the Gulf of Mexico.

The company’s CEO said:

During the quarter, we saw improvement in activity levels across the United States land market as drilling and completion efficiencies continue to drive an improved well count. The United States land rig count, however, remains sluggish. Additionally, oversupply of service capacity in North America continues to put pressure on pricing in a number of areas. … Globally, we will continue to expand our portfolio in deepwater, mature fields, and unconventionals. We believe the underlying fundamentals for our industry are strong, and I am optimistic about Halliburton’s relative performance as we move into 2014

Operating income rose from $954 million in the third quarter of 2012 to $1.11 billion in 2013. North American income rose nearly 18%, Latin American income was up about 6%, while Europe/Africa/CIS came up about 25% and Middle East/Asia posted a gain of nearly 20%.

Competitors Baker Hughes Inc. (NYSE: BHI) and Schlumberger Ltd. (NYSE: SLB) posted third-quarter earnings on Friday, and both set new 52-week highs on numbers that were in line with Halliburton’s. North America contributes more than half of Halliburton’s revenues and about 60% of its profits, a bigger share than either of its large competitors. That is usually a good thing, but increased pricing pressure has hurt Halliburton more than it has its peers. Worse, that pricing pressure does not look to be letting up. On the plus side, Halliburton’s strength in Mexico is a real positive.

Halliburton shares were down fractionally in premarket trading at $52.45, in a 52-week range of $29.83 to $52.93. The high was set last Friday. Thomson Reuters had a consensus analyst price target of around $59.40 before this report.