For quite some time, I published a series of articles over at Seeking Alpha that tracked the performance of six offshore drilling companies. Quite some time ago though, I let that series fall by the wayside. In the interim, the offshore drilling industry went through one of its worst periods in history and I ended up focusing my efforts on other projects. However, as I have been discussing in a few articles lately, the offshore drilling industry has begun to recover, albeit slowly, and I find myself with more free time. Therefore, I would like to resurrect the series so that fans of the industry can see how the recovery has begun to impact the various companies that are active in the industry. For the purposes of this report, I have chosen six companies that are largely representative of the industry as a whole and, in particular, the industry’s future.
Transocean (RIG)
On Tuesday, September 5, 2017 (Monday was Labor Day and thus a market holiday), Transocean opened at $8.64 per share. The stock declined over the course of the week, closing at $8.47 on Friday, September 8. This represents a loss of 1.97% over the week. However, even following this loss, Transocean stock gained over the past two weeks. On August 25, the stock opened at $7.81 per share and gained over the course of that week. However, this week’s decline still represents a reversal of fortunes for the company’s shareholders.
There were no significant events affecting Transocean over the past week, although it was one of the stocks that RBC upgraded a few weeks ago on indications that the indication has begun to recover.
Source: Fidelity Investments
Ensco plc (ESV)
Ensco stock also declined over the week ending September 8, 2017. On September 5, the stock opened at $4.57 per share and closed out the week at $4.45 per share. This represents a loss of 2.63% on the week. Interestingly, Ensco is almost perfectly flat over the past two weeks, although it has been nothing if not volatile over that period. On August 25, Ensco opened at $4.43 per share. Buy and hold investors might not be pleased with the company’s stock performance over the past two weeks, but traders that were able to take advantage of the volatility would have seen respectable returns.
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