Halliburton Co. (HAL) on Monday reported a third-quarter loss of $54 million, after reporting a profit in the same period a year earlier.
On a per-share basis, the Houston-based company said it had a loss of 6 cents. Earnings, adjusted for asset impairment costs and costs related to mergers and acquisitions, were 31 cents per share.
The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 17 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 27 cents per share.
The provider of drilling services to oil and gas operators posted revenue of $5.58 billion in the period, falling short of Street forecasts. Ten analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $5.67 billion.
Halliburton shares have dropped roughly 4 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has fallen slightly more than 1 percent. The stock has dropped 28 percent in the last 12 months.
