UPDATE: Baker Hughes Beats Q4 Expectations

Baker Hughes Inc. BHI reported a better-than-expected fourth-quarter profit. Quarterly net income attributable to the company jumped to $663 million, or $1.52 per share, compared to $248 million, or $0.56 per share, in the year-ago period. Excluding non-recurring items, the company earned $1.44 per share. Its revenue surge 13% to $6.64 billion in the period. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $1.07 per share on revenue of $6.47 billion. Free cash flow for the quarter jumped 16% from the third quarter to $838 million. North America's revenue gained 5% sequentially to $3.3 billion, while the Middle East/Asia Pacific segment's revenue gained 13% from the previous quarter to $1.2 billion. The Europe/Africa/Russia Caspian segment's revenue rose 3% sequentially to $1.1 billion. Industrial Services' revenue surged 13% from the prior quarter to $377 million. For the year, Baker Hughes' profit climbed 57% to $1.72 billion, while revenue rose around 10% to $24.55 billion. Martin Craighead, Baker Hughes Chairman and Chief Executive Officer commented, "Our fourth quarter results punctuate a record year for our company in 2014. We delivered very strong growth in revenue, earnings and free cash flow during the fourth quarter. In spite of increasing concerns of challenging market conditions, we remained focused on achieving the performance objectives that we laid out last year.” Baker Hughes shares jumped 5.66% to close at $56.56 on Friday.