Schlumberger’s Operating Performance Is Impressive
November 23, 2009 9:34 AM
On Monday Credit Suisse upgraded Schlumberger Limited (NYSE: SLB)to “Outperform” rating from the previous “Neutral” and raised their price target to $76 from $72 earlier, this represents a premium of about 20% over yesterday’s closing price of $63.34.
The firm said “SLB’s recent performance has demonstrated the benefits of its extensive cost savings efforts – the company has previously identified $1.2B of cost cuts, although this included variable costs. Margins in North America in 3Q09 of 3.4% beat our estimate of 2% despite what was a greater negative impact in the Gulf of Mexico than expected, suggesting some margin improvement in U.S. land despite the continuing weight of softer pricing and weaker activity in 3Q09 (as well, of course, as in Canada).
Schlumberger Limited (NYSE: SLB) rose 2.70% to $65.05 in the pre-market session. The 52 week trading range for SLB is $35.05 - $71.10.
