Halliburton Company HAL is set to report third-quarter 2015 results on Oct 19, before the opening bell. Last quarter, the company posted a positive earnings surprise of 51.72%. In fact, the company has a positive four-quarter average earnings surprise of 21.66%. Let's see what is in store this quarter.
Factors to Consider
Houston, TX-based Halliburton is a global oilfield service provider, offering a variety of equipment, maintenance, and engineering and construction services to the energy, industrial, and government sectors. In short, oil field service players primarily support upstream companies that include drilling firms setting up their oil and gas wells.
It is common knowledge that the overall operation is positively correlated with oil price. This is because, the lower the price of the commodity, there will be fewer incentives for the upstream players to explore and drill more wells and hence weaker will be the demand for oil field services firms.
During the third quarter, most of the times, crude traded below $50 per barrel. In fact, sometimes the commodity even traded below $40 per barrel. Overall, the pricing environment is not favorable for upstream operations and not supportive to oilfield service players.
Earnings Whispers?
Our proven model does not conclusively show that Halliburton Company is likely to beat earnings this quarter. This is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1, 2 or 3 for this to happen. That is not the case here as you will see below.
Zacks ESP: The company’s Earnings ESP is -3.57%. This is because the Most Accurate estimate is pegged at 27 cents while the Zacks Consensus Estimate stands higher at 28 cents.
Zacks Rank: Halliburton has a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell). Not only does the company have a negative Earnings ESP, we also caution against stocks with a Zacks Rank #4 and 5 (Sell-rated stocks) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions.
Stocks to Consider
Here are some companies in the energy sector that investors may consider, as our model shows that they have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this quarter:
Exterran Partners LP EXLP has Earnings ESP of +19.23% and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). The company is expected to release earnings on Nov 3.
Matrix Service Company MTRX has Earnings ESP of +12.90% and a Zacks Rank #1. The company is likely to release earnings on Nov 4.
Natural Gas Services Group Inc. NGS has Earnings ESP of +21.05% and a Zacks Rank #1. The company is anticipated to release earnings on Nov 5.
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