Halliburton Company (HAL): History, Ownership, Mission, How It Works & Makes Money

How does Halliburton Company (HAL), a century-old giant, remain defintely indispensable in a rapidly shifting global energy landscape?

As one of the world's largest energy services providers, the company commands a market capitalization of around $22.55 billion as of late 2025, but its recent Q3 2025 revenue of $5.6 billion shows the complex financial dynamics of the oilfield services sector.

They're not just about traditional drilling; they're actively expanding into future-focused areas like carbon capture and storage (CCS) monitoring and winning major deepwater contracts with Petrobras, so you need to understand how this diverse business model actually works to see where the real value lies.

Halliburton Company (HAL) History

You need a clear line of sight on a company's past to gauge its future, and Halliburton Company's (HAL) century-long history is a masterclass in adapting to the volatile energy market. The direct takeaway is that Halliburton's evolution from a single-service cementing operation to a global, dual-headquartered oilfield services giant was driven by aggressive international expansion, strategic diversification into engineering (Brown & Root), and a recent, decisive pivot toward digital and unconventional resource technology.

Given Company's Founding Timeline

Year established

The company was established in 1919 as the New Method Oil Well Cementing Company.

Original location

While founder Erle P. Halliburton started his work in Burkburnett, Texas, the company soon established its headquarters in Duncan, Oklahoma, in 1921, which became its operational base for decades.

Founding team members

The sole founder was Erle P. Halliburton, an innovative technician who perfected the process of oil-well cementing to seal off water. His wife, Vida Halliburton, also became a stockholder when the company incorporated.

Initial capital/funding

Initial capital was minimal and operational-Halliburton started with a borrowed wagon, a team of mules, and a pump. The first significant funding came in 1924 when the company incorporated and sold stock to Erle and Vida Halliburton and seven major oil companies, including Magnolia, Gulf, and Humble, to finance expansion.

Given Company's Evolution Milestones

Given Company's Transformative Moments

The company's trajectory was fundamentally altered by a few key, non-linear decisions that redefined its business model and global footprint. You can't understand the current entity without knowing these shifts.

• The 1924 Incorporation: This was the first major capital infusion, moving beyond a sole proprietorship. Selling a stake to seven major oil companies like Humble and Gulf secured both the necessary capital for expansion and, defintely, a guaranteed customer base.
• The 1962 Diversification into Engineering: Acquiring Brown & Root Inc. was a massive leap, pushing Halliburton far beyond cementing into major infrastructure projects. This created the dual-business structure that lasted for over four decades, significantly boosting total revenue and global reach.
• The 2006 KBR Spin-off: This was a crucial strategic move to shed the high-risk, low-margin engineering and construction business (KBR) and concentrate on the higher-margin, technology-driven Energy Services Group. It was a clear signal to the market about prioritizing core oilfield services.
• The Post-2015 Digital and Unconventional Focus: The company committed to technological leadership, especially in unconventional resource development (shale). This includes the 2025 focus on digital transformation, leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to optimize reservoir performance, and exploring new energy ventures like Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS).

This focus on innovation, from the original jet mixer to today's autonomous fracturing operations, is why the company remains a market leader. For a deeper look at who is investing now and why, you should check out Exploring Halliburton Company (HAL) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?

Halliburton Company (HAL) Ownership Structure

Halliburton Company's (HAL) ownership is heavily concentrated among institutional investors, which is typical for a large-cap, publicly traded energy services firm. As of late 2025, a significant majority of the company, nearly 90%, is held by professional money managers, meaning their trading decisions strongly influence the stock price.

Halliburton Company's Current Status

Halliburton is a public company, trading under the ticker symbol HAL primarily on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), and it recently added a dual listing on NYSE Texas. This public status means its financials are transparent and its governance is subject to SEC regulations. The company's market capitalization stands at approximately $22.55 billion as of November 2025, placing it firmly in the large-cap category. That's a huge valuation, but still down about 7.73% year-over-year, which tells you the market is still processing the energy sector's volatility.

Halliburton Company's Ownership Breakdown

The company's shareholder base is dominated by large asset managers, which gives them considerable sway over major corporate decisions, like board elections and capital allocation strategy. The Vanguard Group, Inc., Capital Research Global Investors, and BlackRock, Inc. are the largest shareholders, collectively owning a substantial chunk of the company.

Honestly, when you see institutional ownership this high, it means the stock is a core holding for most large funds tracking the energy sector or major indices. Insiders own less than 1%, but their holdings are still worth millions, so they defintely have skin in the game.

Halliburton Company's Leadership

The company is steered by an experienced leadership team, with the CEO also serving as the Chairman of the Board, a common structure that concentrates strategic and operational authority. The average tenure for the management team is about 4.2 years, suggesting a blend of stability and fresh perspective.

The key executive team members as of late 2025 include:

• Jeffrey Miller: Chairman of the Board, President, and Chief Executive Officer. His total compensation for the last fiscal year was approximately $18.33 million.
• Eric Carre: Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO). He manages the financial strategy, from planning to investor relations.
• Van Beckwith: Executive Vice President, Secretary, and Chief Legal Officer.
• Mark Richard: President, Western Hemisphere. He recently sold 160,000 shares for about $4.44 million in November 2025.
• Shannon Slocum: President, Eastern Hemisphere.

This structure shows a clear division of operational focus between the Western Hemisphere (North America) and the Eastern Hemisphere (international markets), which is crucial given the different dynamics in those oil and gas regions. To understand the principles guiding these leaders, you should check out the Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of Halliburton Company (HAL).

Halliburton Company (HAL) Mission and Values

Halliburton Company's purpose extends beyond oilfield services revenue; it centers on driving superior shareholder returns by delivering technology that maximizes customer production while advancing a sustainable energy future. This dual focus on value creation and environmental responsibility forms the bedrock of their cultural DNA, guiding their global operations across more than 70 countries.

Halliburton Company's Core Purpose

You're looking for the company's true north, and honestly, it's a tightrope walk between shareholder value and industry evolution. Halliburton's core values-Respect, Integrity, Collaboration, Safety, and Value Creation-are the principles every one of their over 40,000 employees is expected to live by daily. These aren't just posters on a wall; they are the framework for their sustainability Guiding Principles, which aim to deliver positive financial value while minimizing their environmental footprint.

Official mission statement

The mission statement is clear and financially-driven, but it's wrapped in a service promise. The goal is to achieve superior growth and returns for shareholders. They do this by focusing on three key deliverables for their customers:

• Improve efficiency with technology.
• Increase recovery of resources.
• Maximize production from assets.

In practice, this means developing innovative technologies like the Octiv® Auto Frac service, which automates hydraulic fracturing execution, helping customers like Coterra Energy Inc. cut down on well time. This commitment is why they reported a Q3 2025 revenue of $5.6 billion, showing their solutions are defintely in demand.

Vision statement

Halliburton's vision is simple: to be an indispensable partner. They want to be so integral to your operations that you can't envision success without them. This isn't about being the cheapest; it's about being the best technical solution provider. They are driving this vision by focusing on a 'Journey to ZERO,' which is their internal goal of having zero health, safety, environmental, or service quality incidents. This kind of operational excellence is what secures long-term contracts, like the one with Petrobras for integrated drilling services offshore Brazil. You can read more about how these principles align here: Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of Halliburton Company (HAL).

Halliburton Company slogan/tagline

While they don't use a single, catchy slogan in the traditional sense, their operational focus is the real tagline. It's what they execute on every day.

• Collaborate and Engineer Solutions to Maximize Asset Value.

This focus is why their adjusted operating margin was a strong 13% in the third quarter of 2025. Their strategy is to prioritize returns and technology leadership, which drives both customer and shareholder value. They are committed to returning cash, too; the board declared a Q4 2025 dividend of $0.17 a share.

Halliburton Company (HAL) How It Works

Halliburton Company operates as a critical partner to the global energy industry, providing a vast portfolio of services and products that span the entire lifecycle of an oil or gas well, from initial exploration and drilling to final production and abandonment.

The company essentially helps energy producers find, drill, and maximize the output of their reservoirs, which generated a total revenue of $5.6 billion in the third quarter of 2025.

Halliburton Company's Product/Service Portfolio

Halliburton organizes its offerings into two primary segments, with the larger one, Completion and Production, posting a Q3 2025 revenue of $3.2 billion. The Drilling and Evaluation segment brought in $2.4 billion in the same period.

Halliburton Company's Operational Framework

Halliburton's operational framework is built on a massive, globally distributed asset base and a strategy of technology-driven integration to reduce customer costs.

The core process starts with the Drilling and Evaluation segment, which finds the resource and builds the wellbore. This involves using advanced drilling fluid systems, drill bits, and wireline services (logging) to understand the geology. Then, the Completion and Production segment takes over, cementing the well, installing completion equipment, and stimulating the reservoir-often with hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in North America-to get the oil or gas flowing.

Here's the quick math: Halliburton's adjusted operating margin was 13% in Q3 2025, which shows they are defintely prioritizing returns over just chasing volume.

• Integrated Services: They offer comprehensive, end-to-end solutions that cover the entire well lifecycle, which simplifies logistics and vendor management for the customer.
• Digital Transformation: Leveraging digital technologies to automate processes, like the Octiv® Auto Frac service, which drives operational efficiency and provides data-driven insights.
• Capital Discipline: Management is focused on capital efficiency, taking steps like idling equipment that does not meet return expectations and committing to cost savings estimated at $100 million per quarter.

If you want to dive deeper into the financial mechanics of this framework, check out Breaking Down Halliburton Company (HAL) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors.

Halliburton Company's Strategic Advantages

The company's market success comes from a few distinct, hard-to-replicate advantages that allow it to command a strong market position, especially in North America.

• Market Leadership in Completions: Halliburton is North America's largest oilfield service company by market share, with a dominant position in hydraulic fracturing and completions, a segment that generates nearly half of its revenue.
• Technological Edge: Continuous investment in research and development allows them to offer differentiated products like the iCruise rotary steerable systems, which lower development costs for producers.
• Global Footprint and Diversification: Operating in over 70 countries helps mitigate regional market volatility, even as activity declines in specific markets like Saudi Arabia and Mexico.
• Energy Transition Pivot: They are leveraging core subsurface expertise to enter high-growth, low-carbon markets like Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and geothermal energy, including a contract with the Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP) in the UK North Sea.

Their ability to generate robust cash flow-$488 million from operations in Q3 2025-is a huge advantage, allowing them to fund these strategic technology investments while returning cash to shareholders.

Halliburton Company (HAL) How It Makes Money

Halliburton Company makes money by providing a vast portfolio of products and services to oil and natural gas exploration and production (E&P) companies globally, essentially acting as the indispensable service provider for every stage of the reservoir lifecycle, from initial drilling to final production enhancement.

The company's revenue engine is split across two major segments: Completion and Production (C&P), which is the larger and more volatile segment, and Drilling and Evaluation (D&E), which provides the foundational services needed to start a well. In the third quarter of 2025 (Q3 2025), Halliburton generated a total revenue of $5.6 billion.

Halliburton Company's Revenue Breakdown

The Completion and Production segment is the primary money-maker, bringing in $3.2 billion in Q3 2025. This segment includes high-value, technology-intensive services like hydraulic fracturing (fracking), cementing, and artificial lift, which are critical for maximizing the output of a well. The Drilling and Evaluation segment, with $2.4 billion in Q3 2025 revenue, covers the initial phases-drilling, wireline logging, and drill bits-where efficiency and data collection are key. Both segments showed a sequential revenue increase of 2% from Q2 to Q3 2025, a sign of near-term market stabilization.

Business Economics

Halliburton's business is fundamentally cyclical, tied directly to the capital spending of E&P companies, which in turn is driven by global commodity prices (oil and gas). The current strategy, 'Maximize Value,' is a clear shift toward prioritizing profit margins and returns on invested capital (ROIC) over simply chasing market share at any cost.

• Pricing Power via Technology: The company uses proprietary, high-tech offerings like the Zeus IQ autonomous fracturing system and the iCruise drilling system to command better pricing, even in a soft market. Automating 75% of operations in some regions, like Europe and Eurasia, with the iCruise system boosts efficiency enough to justify a premium.
• North America vs. International Mix: North America is the more volatile market, heavily reliant on short-cycle shale drilling. The international market, though slower, provides more stable, long-term contracts. Halliburton is focused on international growth, where its value proposition is winning customers.
• Digital Revenue Streams: A growing part of the business model is software and digital services. The iEnergy cloud platform now accounts for 20% of software revenue, providing a more recurring, high-margin revenue stream. This is defintely a key differentiator.
• Cost Discipline: The company took cost reduction actions in Q3 2025 expected to deliver estimated savings of $100 million per quarter, showing a strong focus on margin control in a challenging environment.

Halliburton Company's Financial Performance

Despite a volatile market, Halliburton's financial health as of Q3 2025 shows disciplined capital management and a focus on shareholder returns. The key is looking at adjusted metrics, which strip out one-time charges that can obscure underlying operational health.

• Adjusted Operating Margin: The adjusted operating margin for Q3 2025 was 13%. This is a crucial metric, showing the profitability of core operations before interest and taxes.
• Adjusted Net Income: Adjusted net income for Q3 2025 was $496 million, or $0.58 per diluted share, which beat analyst consensus estimates.
• Cash Flow and Returns: The company generated strong cash flow from operations of $488 million and free cash flow of $276 million in Q3 2025. They are committed to returning cash, repurchasing approximately $250 million of common stock in the quarter.
• Liquidity: The balance sheet remains robust, with a debt-to-equity ratio of approximately 0.70 as of November 2025, indicating a manageable level of financial leverage.

To understand the strategic direction behind these financial moves, you should review the Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of Halliburton Company (HAL).

Halliburton Company (HAL) Market Position & Future Outlook

Halliburton Company is strategically pivoting to offset near-term North American market softness by accelerating its international growth and aggressively expanding into new energy technologies. You should see this as a calculated shift: less reliance on volatile US shale and more focus on high-margin, long-cycle projects overseas and in emerging sectors like Carbon Capture and Lithium.

The company is the world's second-largest oil service provider, but its future trajectory is defintely tied to its ability to execute on its digital and energy transition strategy. For the nine months ending September 30, 2025, Halliburton reported total revenue of approximately $16.5 billion, demonstrating its massive scale even amidst market headwinds.

Competitive Landscape

The oilfield services market is dominated by the 'Big 3,' but each company has a distinct geographical and technological focus. Halliburton is the undisputed leader in North American pressure pumping, but SLB Limited holds the global crown, and Baker Hughes Company is the most diversified. The global oilfield services market size is estimated at $126.32 billion in 2025.

Opportunities & Challenges

The biggest opportunity for Halliburton in 2025 is leveraging its subsurface expertise for the energy transition, but the biggest risk remains the volatile capital spending of US shale producers. Honestly, the market is rewarding companies that can deliver efficiency and diversification right now.

For more on the underlying financial strength supporting these moves, check out Breaking Down Halliburton Company (HAL) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors.

Industry Position

Halliburton's position is one of technological leadership in the most demanding segment of the oilfield services market: unconventional resources.

• Unconventional Dominance: The company is the largest pressure pumper in North America, a key advantage as US shale focuses on maximizing existing asset value over new drilling.
• Digital Differentiation: Investments in AI platforms and autonomous solutions like Zeus IQ closed-loop fracturing are driving operational efficiency gains, which is what operators are paying for now.
• Financial Discipline: Halliburton is committed to returning over 50% of annual free cash flow to shareholders, with a target of at least $1.6 billion in 2025, which signals a mature, cash-generating business model.
• Valuation Appeal: The company trades at lower EV/EBITDA multiples (around 6.1x for 2025) compared to its main peers, suggesting an attractive valuation for a market leader.