Shares of Halliburton Co. HAL, -4.16% surged 2.3% in premarket trading Wednesday, after the oil services company swung to a first-quarter profit that beat expectations and revenue that topped forecasts. Net income was $170 million, or 19 cents a share, after a loss of $1.02 billion, or $1.16 a share, in the year-ago period. The FactSet consensus for earnings per share was 17 cents. Total revenue dropped 31.5% to $3.45 billion, but beat the FactSet consensus of $3.36 billion. Completion and Production revenue fell 37% to $1.87 billion, missing the FactSet consensus of $1.90 billion, and drilling and evaluation revenue declined 24% to $1.58 billion but beat expectations of $1.46 billion. “The first quarter marked an activity inflection for the international markets, while North America continued to stage a healthy recovery,” said Chief Executive Jeff Miller. “I expect international activity growth to accelerate, and the early positive momentum in North America gives me confidence in the activity cadence for the rest of the year.” Halliburton’s stock has gained 4.8% year to date through Tuesday, while the VanEck Vectors Oil Services ETF OIH, -4.80% has rallied 13.2% and the S&P 500 SPX, -0.68% has advanced 10.1%.
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