Earnings Outlook Promising For Haliburton

Oppenheimer recently spoke with Haliburton HAL management and came away convinced that the company will "handily" beat the prior $0.45 forecast for 3Q, driven by continued strength in the North American pressure pumping market. Concerns are centered on continued low gas prices, new pressure pumping capacity coming online and cost inflation. However, those concerns don't look to hinder further revenue and margin improvements for at least the next few quarters. Oppenheimer is bumping up its numbers accordingly and think HAL could retain its price momentum into the 3Q results call and its early November analyst meeting. Oppenheimer has a Market Perform rating on Haliburton. HAL is slightly lower at $32.46