Halliburton Q2 Profit Slides, Revenue Slightly Up

(RTTNews) - Oilfield services provider Halliburton Co. (HAL, HAL.TO, HAL.F), which did the cementing work for BP Plc.'s (BP, BP.L) Macondo well that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, Monday said profit for the second quarter declined from the prior year, despite a small rise in revenues.

Net income attributable to the company fell to $679 million from $737 million in the previous year. Earnings per share dropped to $0.73 from $0.79. On average, 32 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.72 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

The company had reported a loss of $18 million or $0.02 per share in the preceding first quarter. Excluding a $0.68 per share charge to increase a reserve related to the Macondo litigation, income from continuing operations for the first quarter was $624 million or $0.67 per share.

Total revenue grew to $7.317 billion from $7.234 billion in the prior year. Analysts expected revenues of $7.25 billion.

Halliburton said that compared to its primary competitors, it has delivered leading year-over-year international revenue growth for five consecutive quarters.

Dave Lesar, CEO, said, "I am pleased with our second quarter results, as total company revenue of $7.3 billion was a record quarter for Halliburton. Looking at our product lines, Baroid, Cementing, Completion Tools, Multi-Chem, and Testing set quarterly revenue records, while Baroid, Testing, and Artificial Lift all set quarterly operating income records.''

Completion and Production or C&P revenue in quarter fell 2 percent to $4.36 billion with a 9 percent drop in North America, but rose 6 percent sequentially. The company attributed the sequential improvement to improved activity levels in the U.S. land market and strong international results, despite the effects of the seasonal Canadian spring break-up.

In Drilling and Evaluation, revenues rose more than 6 percent to $2.954 billion and advanced 3 percent from the prior quarter amid higher drilling activity in the Eastern Hemisphere.

Sequentially, Halliburton reported a relatively flat U.S. land rig count in the second quarter. For the third quarter, the company expects the U.S. land rig count to be flat.

Looking ahead, Lesar said, ''We continue to be optimistic about Halliburton's performance for the remainder of 2013, our ability to continue growing our North America margins, and continued revenue and margin expansion in our international business.''

Among peers, Schlumberger Ltd. (SLB) Friday reported a 50 percent jump in second-quarter profit, as revenues increased amid strong international performance, with a rebound in exploration and drilling activity in China and Australia.

Further, Halliburton said it purchased 23 million shares of common stock in the quarter at a total cost of $1.0 billion. The company has now $0.7 billion of repurchase capacity remaining under a program initially authorized in 2006.

On July 18, Halliburton's board of directors increased the authorization to purchase Halliburton common stock by $4.3 billion, to a new total repurchase capacity of $5.0 billion. The board also declared a third-quarter dividend of $0.125 a share on the company's common stock payable September 25 to shareholders of record at the close of business on September 4.

The company also reaffirmed its intention to distribute total annual dividends of at least 15-20 percent of net income.

HAL closed at $45.83 on Friday.