Schlumberger (SLB) Stock Gained Following Analyst Upgrade

• Why Create Project Documents from Scratch When You Have …..(Click Here)

July 07:


NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Schlumberger (SLB - Get Report) shares closed trading up 0.41% to $43.43 on heavy trading volume on Tuesday after the giant oilfield services company was mentioned in a positive note from analysts at Howard Weil today.

Analysts at the firm upgraded the stock to its focus list from its previous "sector outperform" rating.

The firm also set its price target at $100 per share.

The new price represents a potential upside of 130%

Separately, today analysts at Deutsche Bank named the company one of four oil service stocks with a potential upside of at least 40%.

TheStreet Ratings team rates SCHLUMBERGER LTD as a Buy with a ratings score of B. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

"We rate SCHLUMBERGER LTD (SLB) a BUY. This is driven by several positive factors, which we believe should have a greater impact than any weaknesses, and should give investors a better performance opportunity than most stocks we cover. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures and good cash flow from operations. We feel its strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had lackluster performance in the stock itself."


Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:
  • The current debt-to-equity ratio, 0.34, is low and is below the industry average, implying that there has been successful management of debt levels. Along with the favorable debt-to-equity ratio, the company maintains an adequate quick ratio of 1.18, which illustrates the ability to avoid short-term cash problems.
  • Net operating cash flow has slightly increased to $1,770.00 million or 8.25% when compared to the same quarter last year. Despite an increase in cash flow, SCHLUMBERGER LTD's average is still marginally south of the industry average growth rate of 13.44%.
  • SLB, with its decline in revenue, slightly underperformed the industry average of 0.8%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly dropped by 8.8%. Weakness in the company's revenue seems to have hurt the bottom line, decreasing earnings per share.
  • The change in net income from the same quarter one year ago has exceeded that of the Energy Equipment & Services industry average, but is less than that of the S&P 500. The net income has significantly decreased by 38.8% when compared to the same quarter one year ago, falling from $1,592.00 million to $975.00 million.
  • The gross profit margin for SCHLUMBERGER LTD is currently lower than what is desirable, coming in at 30.36%. It has decreased from the same quarter the previous year. Regardless of the weak results of the gross profit margin, the net profit margin of 9.51% is above that of the industry average.
  • You can view the full analysis from the report here: SLB Ratings Report

Source: http://www.thestreet.com/story/13210944/1/schlumberger-slb-stock-gained-following-analyst-upgrade.html?

Click Here

Comments