Schlumberger Earnings To Decline 40%?

Shares of Schlumberger Limited. SLB are trading slightly up on Thursday afternoon, ahead of the announcement of the company’s second quarter financial results, scheduled for after the market close.

According to Estimize, the quarter is expected to be the worst in more than four years. The Street is modeling consensus earnings of $0.79 per share on revenue of $9.12 billion, while the crowd is projecting consensus earnings of $0.83 per share on sales of $9.388 billion.

These estimates imply a decline of approximately 40 percent from earnings of $1.39 per share and revenue of $12.054 billion reported in the second quarter of 2014.

As it can be appreciated in the chart above, however, Schlumberger has a history of reporting earnings slightly above estimates – especially those of the Street. So, a beat this quarter should not be discarded.

The second chart here illustrates the evolution of sentiment over time. As it can be seen, both the Street and the crowd have been becoming increasingly bearish on earnings as the report date loomed. Estimates now stand very close to their lowest.

Schlumberger will kick off the earnings season for the oil services industry, and, in a recent report, Morgan Stanley analyst Ole Slorer pointed it out as the firm’s top stock pick in the space.

In another recent report, Credit Suisse analyst James Wicklund also said that the company is still a "Best-in-Class."