Halliburton Shares Inch Higher After Company Names New CEO

Shares of Halliburton Co. inched higher Thursday, a day after the oil-field services company announced its board of directors elected Jeff Miller, a board member and the company's president, as Halliburton's next chief executive. CEO David Lesar, who has led Halliburton since 2000, will continue as executive chairman. The changes will be effective June 1, the company said in a statement late Wednesday. The announcement had been expected since Miller was named president in 2014, but it came earlier than expected, analysts at Citigroup said in a note Thursday. Moreover, the company is still searching for a chief financial officer after it announced the departure of CFO Mark McCollum in March, they said. But Halliburton is "in good hands, has a deep bench within operations and should attract a highly qualified CFO. The company is currently interviewing candidates and hopes to announce a new CFO in the months ahead," the Citigroup analysts said.