Shares of Halliburton Co. fell 2.0% in premarket trading Tuesday, to pull back from a 3 1/2-year high in the previous session, even after the oil services company reported first-quarter profit and revenue that rose just above expectations. Net income rose to $263 million, or 29 cents a share, from $170 million, or 19 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Excluding nonrecurring items, adjusted earnings per share of 35 cents topped the FactSet consensus of 34 cents. Total revenue grew 24.1% to $4.28 billion, above the FactSet consensus of $4.20 billion. Completion and Production revenue rose 25.8% to $2.35 billion, just shy of the FactSet consensus of $2.37 billion, while drilling and evaluation revenue increased 22.1% to $1.93 billion to beat expectations of $1.85 billion. “We see significant tightness across the entire oil and gas value chain in North America,” said Chief Executive Jeffrey Miller. “Supportive commodity prices and strengthening customer demand against an almost sold-out equipment market are expected to drive expansion in Completion and Production division margins.” The stock has rocketed 82.1% year to date to close Monday at the highest price since October 2018, while the S&P 500 has lost 7.9% this year.
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