Halliburton posts international revenue growth in Q3

Worldwide revenues rose for US oilfield services provider Halliburton Co in the third quarter, the company said yesterday, contrasting with the slide in international markets reported by larger rival Schlumberger last week.International markets are becoming more important for US oil companies, as industry executives brace for the North American fracking frenzy to slow, or “tap the brakes,” as Halliburton had put it in July.“Our North American business is hitting on all cylinders and our international business proved resilient in a challenging environment,” chief executive Jeff Miller said yesterday after Halliburton posted its third quarter results.Halliburton said it completed more oil wells and charged higher prices for fracking in North America, which makes up almost 60% of its overall sales.That helped the company post a profit of 42 cents a share in the third quarter ended September 30, beating analysts’ average estimates by 5 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.“The concern was that the company would beat sell-side numbers, but disappoint buy-side expectations,” said Credit Suisse, pegging that estimate at 40 cents.Houston-based Halliburton said revenue from North America surged 91% to $3.16bn in the quarter, while international sales rose nearly 5%. Cross-town neighbour Schlumberger, the world’s largest oilfield service company, had reported a 2% drop in international revenues in the quarter, and warned of a weak fourth quarter.Halliburton said revenue from completion and production from oil wells rose 63% to $3.54bn in the latest quarter.Overall revenue rose 42% to $5.44bn.State Street CorpState Street Corp’s adjusted expenses rose 4% in the third quarter, overshadowing a better-than-expected profit and sending the bank’s shares down 4% yesterday.The company’s higher expenses come at a time when many US banks have sharpened focus on cost-cutting efforts to boost profits in a low interest rate environment and amid sluggish loan growth.The faster-than-expected increase in Boston-based State Street’s operating costs is likely to concern investors, Sandler O’Neill analyst Jeffery Harte said.On an adjusted basis, State Street’s expenses rose 4.1% to $1.99bn in the quarter ended September 30, one percentage point higher than Sandler O’Neill’s estimate.The company said costs rose in part due to higher performance-based incentives paid to its employees. Still, State Street’s net income attributable to common shareholders rose 24% to $629mn, benefiting from higher interest rates.On an adjusted basis, State Street earned $1.71 per share and topped analysts’ average expectation of $1.62, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. The bank’s net interest income climbed 12.3% to $603mn, reflecting the market impact of the three rises in official Federal Reserve interest rates since last year. State Street, which generates revenue mainly by managing and servicing investments, trading and providing research services, said its total fee income rose 7.8% to $2.24bn.For the full year, the bank said it expects total fee revenue on an operating basis to rise 6% to 7%. T-MobileT-Mobile US quarterly profit topped Wall Street analyst estimates and the No 3 US wireless carrier raised the lower end of its expected range of customer additions for the year but didn’t elaborate on a potential deal with rival Sprint Corp. The wireless carrier has said it is open to considering various strategic options and has acknowledged interest in talking with Sprint about a merger.Sources told Reuters in September that the companies were close to agreeing to tentative terms on a deal.The company, which declined to hold a post-earnings conference call, did not give details on the merger talks in its earnings report yesterday.Sprint is also scheduled to report earnings tomorrow without holding a call. T-Mobile’s net income was $550mn, or 63 cents a share for the quarter ended September 30, up from $366mn, or 42 cents a share in the year-earlier period.Revenue was $10.02bn, up from $9.31bn a year earlier.Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of 46 cents per share and revenue of $10.01bn, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.Shares were up 1.6% to $61.44 in pre-market trading.T-Mobile has been taking share from its larger rivals Verizon Communications and AT&T through cheaper prices and added perks.Last month, it began offering a free subscription to video streaming service Netflix Inc with its unlimited data family plans.The company added 595,000 subscribers who pay a monthly phone bill, down from the 851,000 net additions it reported in the year-earlier period.T-Mobile said the increase was less than last year due to more competition in the marketplace, the timing of a new iPhone launch and negative impact from hurricanes.Wall Street analysts have said consumers pushed out decisions to switch carriers until the fourth quarter when Apple Inc’s iPhone X is expected to debut. New phone launches typically give customers incentive to upgrade plans and change service providers.Hasbro Hasbro, the No 2 US toymaker, reported a 7% rise in quarterly revenue yesterday, helped by its gaming unit and strong demand for toys based on its My Little Pony and Transformers franchises.Net income attributable to Hasbro rose to $265.6mn, or $2.09 per share, in the third quarter ended October 1, from $257.8mn, or $2.03 per share, a year earlier.The Pawtucket, Rhode Island-based company’s revenue rose to $1.79bn from $1.68bn.The company also said its revenue and operating profit were hurt by the bankruptcy of Toys”R”Us, one of its key retailers.PhilipsDutch electronics giant Philips, which is focusing its business on medical equipment and services, said yesterday that its profit margin and net earnings both rose in the third quarter as it cut costs and stepped up sales.Net profit jumped 10% to €423mn ($498mn) for the period from July through September. Meanwhile sales climbed by 4% from the previous quarter to €4.1bn, while orders rose by 5%. “Despite ongoing global uncertainties, our outlook for 2017 remains unchanged,” chief executive Frans van Houten said, adding that “we are on track to deliver 4% to 6% comparable sales growth and an improvement” by 1% in its measure of operating profit margin.Last year the firm measured its operating profit at 10.5% of sales.In the third quarter it came in at 12.8%. It also said it was on track to deliver annual cost savings of €400mn.“I am satisfied. We are performing to our plan,” Van Houten said.The Amsterdam-based firm may probably best known for its consumer electronics and lighting businesses, but Philips has in recent years pivoted towards serving the health care industry.Although it had sold light bulbs almost since it was founded in 1891, Philips last year spun off the lighting unit.As it no longer owns a majority and will likely soon lose control of the unit it has now moved it into discontinued operations in its accounts, meaning it is no longer included in measures of sales and operating profit growth.The refocus of the business on medical equipment was prompted largely by rising competition from Asia in the consumer and lighting segments.