The Dichotomy of Transocean

To say Transocean

, one of the world's largest providers of offshore drilling services, is a controversial company is an understatement. Even before the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, Transocean was criticized for moving its headquarters to Switzerland in an effort lower its U.S. tax tab. In the weeks and months following the 2010 Gulf spill, Transocean, which owned the Deepwater Horizon rig, would draw the ire of U.S. politicians and regulators. Among other moves, Transocean attempted to use old, opaque maritime laws to trim its spill-related financial liabilities and proceeded to pay a dividend when outsiders said the company should have been conserving cash to compensate victims of the Gulf tragedy. Nearly 30 months removed from the day news of the Gulf spill broke, shares of Transocean trade for barely more than half of where the stock was pre-spill. Sure, Transocean has had its share of bull runs since the spill. However, this is a high-beta stock (beta of 1.14) and the dividend has been suspended. Those facts imply there is not much in the way of compensation for long-term investors with this stock.

One thing that has remained constant with Transocean is the company's ability to find controversy. The problem with that is negative headlines usually hamper a stock's upside. With legal proceedings for the spill slated to start in January 2013, U.S. regulators have upped their

. The potential still exists for Transocean to suffer financial consequences. In July, Transocean added a $750 million charge for its own potential Macondo losses to the $1 billion estimated loss it booked for the fourth quarter of 2011,

. Controversy for Transocean does not end in the U.S. Brazilian regulators are pursuing