Halliburton Company (HAL) 2024 10-K Earnings Analysis
Halliburton Company2024 Earnings Analysis
75/100
Halliburton Company's FY2024 numbers are straightforward on the surface but more interesting underneath: $22.9B of revenue, $2.50B of net income, 0.0% gross margin, and $2.42B of free cash flow. Big-3 Oilfield Services, Pressure-Pumping Leadership, and Pressure-Pumping Pricing remain the clearest way to understand where the economics come from and why margin durability looks different here than it would at a generic peer. Big-3 Oilfield Services helped keep gross margin at 0.0% and operating margin at 16.7%, so the economics still look earned. What matters next is whether Pressure-Pumping Pricing and Energy Transition Long-Tail stay contained at the same time.
Filing analysis
Halliburton Company 2024 10-K Analysis
This page reads Halliburton Company's 2024 10-K annual report through the EarningsMoat framework: earnings quality, economic moat strength, capital allocation, and key risks. The current overall score is 75/100, or grade C.
HAL Earnings Quality
The earnings-quality module scores 75/100, with Operating Margin: 16.7%, CF/Net Income: 1.55x. The core question is whether reported profit is backed by operating cash flow and recurring business economics. See the earnings quality analysis guide.
HAL Economic Moat Analysis
The moat-strength module scores 78/100, with North American Position: Pressure-pumping leader, Big-3 Oilfield Services: With SLB/BKR. The test is whether the advantage can protect returns after competitors react. Read the economic moat analysis guide.
HAL Free Cash Flow vs Net Income
CF/Net Income: 1.55x, Free Cash Flow: $2.42B is the fastest read on whether accounting earnings turn into cash. The capital-allocation module scores 78/100. For the diagnostic, start with cash flow vs net income.
HAL Key Risks from the Annual Report
The risk module scores 68/100, with North America Cycle: Drilling-activity sensitivity, Pressure-Pumping Pricing: Capacity-overhang cycle. The goal is to separate ordinary disclosure from risks that can change margins, cash flow, leverage, or the moat itself.
Is HAL a High Quality Earnings Stock?
Based on this 2024 filing, HAL needs a closer read before it qualifies as a high-quality earnings candidate: the overall grade is C, and the earnings-quality score is 75/100. This is a research screen, not investment advice.
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Overall Score Trend
Earnings Quality
A better way to read operating margin is to notice that the 16.7% operating margin reflects the disclosed dual-segment economics — completion and drilling services mix per the segment-disclosure.
CF / Net Income is not just a statistic here; it shows that OCF of $3.87B is 1.55x net income of $2.50B — reflecting depreciation per the cash-flow reconciliation.
The significance of free cash flow in FY2024 is that FCF of $2.42B (OCF $3.87B minus capex $1.44B) supports the disclosed dividend and share-repurchase program.
There is enough internal consistency in FY2024 to trust the numbers: $2.50B of net income, $2.42B of free cash flow, and 0.0% gross margin all fit together. Big-3 Oilfield Services sits close enough to the core workflow that it supports both margin retention and cash conversion, and Pressure-Pumping Leadership reinforces that pattern. That left the company with 16.7% operating margin before capital allocation choices came into view. The clean cash conversion tied to Big-3 Oilfield Services means the accounting result is not standing alone.
Moat Strength
North American Position helps explain why halliburton holds a leading North American oilfield-services position per public industry rankings — particularly in pressure-pumping (per the disclosed product-line communications).
Read big-3 oilfield services as evidence that halliburton is one of the three major global oilfield services providers per public industry communications — alongside SLB (Schlumberger) and Baker Hughes per the disclosed competitive landscape.
International Expansion is useful mainly because halliburton's international-segment expansion (Middle East and Latin America focus per the disclosed regional-revenue trajectory) provides diversification beyond North American cycle exposure.
The filing points first to Big-3 Oilfield Services and Pressure-Pumping Leadership when you ask why customers do not switch casually. Pressure-Pumping Pricing and Energy Transition Long-Tail show that the advantage is reinforced by adjacent capabilities rather than isolated in one corner of the portfolio. It helps that the FY2024 numbers do not fight the story: Big-3 Oilfield Services still supported 23.8% ROE alongside a readable cash profile. Per the FY2024 annual report and company disclosures, a rival can still win share, but it has to break an embedded process built around Big-3 Oilfield Services rather than only undercut a list price.
Capital Allocation
The reason to focus on free cash flow is that FCF of $2.42B supports the disclosed dividend and share-repurchase program.
Active Buybacks matters in capital allocation because halliburton has executed sustained share-repurchase per the disclosed multi-year buyback-authorization communications.
The allocation takeaway from net debt position is that long-term debt of $7.16B against $2.62B cash equals net debt of $4.54B per the disclosed capital-structure footnote — manageable per the disclosed credit-rating communications.
Once capex was covered, the business still produced $2.42B of free cash flow, which is the real source of optionality around Big-3 Oilfield Services and the rest of the file. Capex intensity of 6.3% of revenue keeps management from treating all operating cash flow from Big-3 Oilfield Services as distributable. The cash cushion is real but not excessive: $2.62B against $7.16B of debt keeps the company dependent on operating follow-through. The company is returning capital through two channels at once: recurring dividends and opportunistic buybacks.
Key Risks
What north america cycle adds to the risk case is that halliburton's North America segment revenue tracks rig count and completion activity cycles per the disclosed customer-spending communications — particularly sensitive to US shale cycle dynamics.
Pressure-Pumping Pricing is worth tracking because pressure pumping pricing cycle has been pressured by capacity-overhang dynamics per public industry communications — pricing-discipline focus per the disclosed strategic-priority communications.
The risk significance of energy transition long-tail is that long-term energy-transition trends per public IEA data create long-term oilfield services demand exposure.
The practical risk frame for FY2024 is Pressure-Pumping Pricing plus Energy Transition Long-Tail, not one clean headline. The linkage between Pressure-Pumping Pricing, mix, and cash generation is what makes the risk file worth respecting. Most of the real risk sits in Pressure-Pumping Pricing operations and market mix rather than in accounting optics. What matters next is whether Pressure-Pumping Pricing and Energy Transition Long-Tail stay contained at the same time.
Management
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This analysis is for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.