HAL vs NESR: How Halliburton and National Energy Services Reunited Compare (2026)

Same yardstick, side by side (as of August 2026). Valuation lined up like this is most meaningful for two names in the same corner of the market, which these are. Figures are approximate; verify before investing.

The metrics above tell you which is the marginally better business. The bigger risk for most people is not picking the slightly worse stock, it is over-concentrating. HAL and NESR share themes, so owning both, or adding either to what you already hold, can quietly push a large share of your portfolio into one bet.

This is the part a generic comparison page cannot answer, because it depends on what you own. Connect your brokerage and Walnut shows your real, combined HAL and NESR exposure, flags overlap with your existing positions, and tells you if adding one would tip you past a concentration you are comfortable with, read-only by default, with your login staying at your broker. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

Halliburton is a global provider of products and services to the energy industry, helping operators locate, drill, evaluate, complete, and produce oil and gas wells. It runs two reporting segments: Completion and Production (cementing, stimulation and pressure pumping, sand control, artificial lift, and completion tools) and Drilling and Evaluation (drilling fluids, directional drilling, wireline, logging, and reservoir evaluation). North America, where Halliburton is the leader in hydraulic fracturing, has historically been its largest single market, though international revenue is now a majority of the mix.

Full HAL guide

National Energy Services Reunited Corp was assembled in 2018 when a SPAC combined two established regional oilfield service businesses, National Petroleum Services and Nabors' Middle East and North Africa operations, into a single Nasdaq-listed platform. It sells through two segments. Production Services covers hydraulic fracturing, cementing, coiled tubing, stimulation, nitrogen, filtration and completions work. Drilling and Evaluation covers the pre-production side: well testing, directional drilling, wireline and slickline logging, drilling fluids, drilling and workover rigs, plus fishing and remediation. Customers are concentrated in the national oil companies of Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, the UAE, Algeria, Libya, Iraq and Qatar, with Saudi Aramco the anchor account and Oman among the top three countries by revenue. Local content requirements in the Gulf, in-Kingdom manufacturing and hiring in particular, are a structural advantage for a company headquartered and staffed in the region rather than one servicing it from Houston.

Full NESR guide

Both fit overlapping themes, but they are not interchangeable. The useful comparison is which set of drivers and risks you want exposure to.

• HAL drivers: International and offshore growth; Technology and digital differentiation.
• NESR drivers: Saudi gas spend, not Saudi oil; Contract diversification outside the Kingdom.

A faster-growing, richer-valued name usually swings harder, so it suits a longer horizon and a higher tolerance for volatility; a steadier, more cash-generative business suits a more conservative or income-minded investor. The honest test is which set of risks you could hold through a drawdown: Halliburton's results are highly cyclical and depend on customer drilling and completion budgets, which fall quickly when oil and gas prices weaken. For NESR, customer concentration is severe: a handful of national oil companies, with Saudi Aramco the largest, set the activity level and the pricing, and Aramco's 2024 rig releases showed how quickly volumes can be pulled.

Growth-minded investors who believe the theme has years to run tend to accept the richer multiple for more upside; value-minded investors lean toward the cheaper forward earnings and steadier profile. Pick HAL if you believe its drivers more; NESR if you believe its. Many investors hold both, but since they share themes, that is a concentrated bet, not diversification. Decide deliberately and check overlap. For the full detail, see the HAL and NESR guides.

HAL. As of July 2026, HAL trades around 15x forward earnings and roughly 8x EV/EBITDA, valuations that reflect a cyclical services business rather than a growth stock. Revenue was roughly flat in Q1 2026 at ~$5.4 billion, and full-year 2025 revenue was ~$22.2 billion, down modestly from 2024. Q1 2026 net income of ~$461 million more than doubled year over year on better operating leverage.

NESR. Q2 2026 results are scheduled for August 10, 2026, with consensus near ~$448.5 million of revenue and ~$0.35 per share. At roughly ~$2.8 billion of market value on ~$1.4 billion of trailing revenue, NESR trades at a higher revenue multiple than Halliburton and closer to SLB, which is unusual for a company of its size and reflects the Q1 growth rate rather than the FY2025 base. Cash generation is the more defensible number: ~$264.2 million of operating cash flow and ~$120.8 million of free cash flow in 2025.

Headline figures (approximate, JULY 2026): HAL shows revenue (ttm) ~$22 billion, fy2025 net income ~$1.28 billion, q1 2026 revenue ~$5.4 billion (flat YoY), market cap ~$29 billion; NESR shows revenue (fy2025) ~$1.324 billion, up ~1.7% year over year, revenue (q1 2026) ~$404.6 million, up ~33.5% year over year, an all-time high, adjusted ebitda (fy2025) ~$281.4 million, ~21.3% margin, diluted eps ~$0.23 in Q1 2026; ~$0.81 adjusted for FY2025.

HAL and NESR are related but distinct: same themes, different businesses and risks. Neither wins in the abstract; the right pick is whichever thesis you actually believe, sized so you are not over-concentrated in one theme. Walnut can show your combined HAL and NESR exposure against your real portfolio. It is not an investment adviser.