: Halliburton stock jumps after profit beats expectations, dividend raise boosts yield to near 1.6%

Shares of Halliburton Co. HAL jumped 1.8% in premarket trading Tuesday, after the oil services company beat fourth-quarter profit expectations and matched on revenue, while raising its dividend by 33%. Net income fell to $656 million, or 72 cents a share, from $824 million, or 92 cents a share, in the year-ago period. The FactSet consensus for earnings per share was 67 cents. Revenue jumped 30.5% to $5.58 billion, while the FactSet consensus was $5.58 billion, as completion and production revenue increased 35.1% to $3.18 billion and drilling and evaluation revenue grew 24.9% to $2.40 billion. Separately, the company said it raised its quarterly dividend to 16 cents a share from 12 cents a share, with the new dividend payable March 29 to shareholders of record on March 1. Based on Monday’s stock closing price of $40.57, the new annual dividend rate implies a dividend yield of 1.58%, compared with the implied yield for the S&P 500 SPX of 1.68%. Halliburton’s stock has run up 17.3% over the past three months through Monday, while the S&P 500 has gained 5.9%.

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