Investopedia: High Oil Prices Should Make For A Healthy Halliburton

Building models and calculating price targets for energy service companies like Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) almost feels like an exercise in futility. Not only is the business maddeningly inconsistent, but there is only scant evidence that investors pay much attention to valuation. More often, energy services are simply a trading vehicle for attitudes about near-term exploration and production in oil and gas. 

That said, Halliburton is seeing stronger business conditions and with oil prices as high as they are, the near-term outlook for exploration and production should be quite healthy. (For more, see Unearth Profits In Oil Exploration And Production.)

North America Drives the Quarter 

Halliburton delivered strong revenue performance to start the year, driven in large part by momentum in the North American business. Overall revenue jumped 40% from last year and rose more than 2% on a sequential basis. Completion and production saw better than 6% growth (and made up about 60% of total revenue), while the drilling and evaluation segment saw a 3% contraction. North American revenue jumped 13% sequentially, while business in regions like Africa, Europe, Russia, Asia and the Mideast dropped by double-digit amounts.

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