Halliburton Earnings Call Nuggets: Key Insights You Must Know

Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) recently reported its fourth quarter earnings and discussed the following topics in its earnings conference call.

E&P Spending

Angie Sedita – UBS: Congratulations on the very strong fourth quarter and clearly for the year as well, particularly in the international markets.

David J. Lesar – Chairman, President and CEO: Thank you Angie, appreciate it. Some folks have been critical of us chasing the international especially the deepwater market aggressively over the past few years, but as I said then and I’ll say now, I think that it’s worth it. These are long-term markets, these are long-term contracts that allow for aggressive use of our technology and aggressive upselling opportunities, so I think you’re starting to see the payoff now and you certainly will see it for the next several years.

Angie Sedita – UBS: I agree, and even better, I would add to that, that you’ve done it on the top line, but you’ve also shown very strong improvements in margins also about the peer group, so a double bonus.

David J. Lesar – Chairman, President and CEO: Yeah, thank you.

Angie Sedita – UBS: So, to follow-up with that, your guidance for Eastern Hemisphere margins average in the high-teens slightly higher than our estimates which is obviously a positive, but I assume Middle East is a big driver of that. However, you referenced E&P spending in the high single-digits for 2013. Would it seem reasonable to you that growth for revenues in 2013 could be in the low to mid double-digits and where do you expect to see the greatest strength?