Posts for Ticker ‘PDS’

Precision Drilling Wins With Grey Wolf Addition (PDS, BJS, HAL, WFT)

oil-well-image4Precision Drilling Trust (NYSE:PDS) reported net first quarter 2009 earnings per common unit of about $0.26, off 62% from the same period a year ago. Revenues grew almost 31%, from $277 million to $362 million. (Amounts converted from Canadian dollars at US$1=CDN$1.23832.) Analysts had been expecting earnings per unit of $0.36.
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Posted on: April 22, 2009 – 8:54 am in Earnings, Oil & Gas, , , ,

Grey Wolf Nearly, Finally Merged (GW, PDS, BAS)

The shareholders of Grey Wolf, Inc. (NYSE:GW) have overwhelmingly chosen to accept cash instead of stock in Precision Drilling Trust (NYSE:PDS) as consideration for Precision’s buyout of Grey Wolf. We’ve been following the story for some months now, but Grey Wolf shareholders approved the merger this morning and the deed is now done.

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Posted on: December 23, 2008 – 11:28 am in Mergers and Buy Outs, Oil & Gas, , ,

Precision Drilling: The Grey Wolf Saga Continues (PDS, GW)

Precision_drilling_imageThe merger between Precision Drilling (NYSE:PDS) and Grey Wolf (NYSE:GW) could turn into the longest running soap opera on Wall Street. Our story last month summed up the action so far.  Last night, Precision announced that the shareholders’ meeting was beingmoved to December 23rd, and that the merger terms were being amended.So far, only 54% of Grey Wolf shares have approved the deal, and theshareholder meeting was scheduled for December 9th.

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Posted on: December 3, 2008 – 10:48 am in Mergers and Buy Outs, Oil & Gas, ,

Will Grey Wolf and Precision Drilling Finally Tie the Knot? (GW, PDS, BAS)

Oil_well_logo_2The buyout of US driller Grey Wolf (NYSE:GW) by Canadian drilling company Precision Drilling Trust (NYSE:PDS) got its start back in April, when oilfield services company Basic Energy Services (NYSE:BAS) made an offer to buy Grey Wolf. While Grey Wolf shareholders were considering that offer, Precision Drilling made an unsolicited bid for Grey Wolf that eventually topped out at $10/share.

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Posted on: November 17, 2008 – 9:02 am in Mergers and Buy Outs, Oil & Gas, , ,

Grey Wolf Finally Gets its Wish, Sort Of (GW, PDS, BAS)

Oil_well_logo_2The board of directors of Grey Wolf, Inc. (AMEX:GW) has been trying to sell the company for at least a couple of months at a higher price. Today, they appear to have gotten their wish. Sort of.  Canada’s Precision Drilling Trust (NYSE:PDS) and Grey Wolf have announced a definitive agreement under which Precision will acquire Grey Wolf for $5/share in cash and 0.1883 new units in Precision for each share of Grey Wolf. That comes to $1.12 billion in cash and 42 million units, worth about another $897 million.  In other words, $9.02 before any dilution and before the 7% "PDS" drop today.

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Posted on: August 25, 2008 – 10:05 am in Mergers and Buy Outs, Oil & Gas, , ,

Oil Services Better Insulated Than Most Energy Sub-Sectors (RIG, DVR, PDS, WFT, NOV, BJS, BHI, BAS, HAL, SLB, SII)

Oil_well_logo_2_2Oil Services are deemed by many market pundits as being more insulated than integrated oils, refiners, and other sub-sectors of the energy sector for oil and gas.  While these frequently move in-line with oil prices and with the sector, they are expected to have much more stable earnings than counterparts elsewhere in the sector.  Many of the oilfield services shares are down nearly 20% or more along with a major drop in oil prices. Transocean’s shares are holding at less than 1% down from 52-week highs, probably on the strength of the company’s bookings.

Transocean Inc. (NYSE: RIG) has given back nearly one-quarter of its value from its highs.  The worst performer among the larger players was CalDive (NYSE:DVR), down 43% from its 52-week high. Precision Drilling Trust (NYSE:PDS) is down about 30%, Weatherford (NYSE:WFT) is off about 27%, and National Oilwell Varco (NYSE:NOV) and BJ Services (NYSE:BJS) are down about 25%. A host of others are off around 20%: Baker Hughes (NYSE:BHI) at 22%; Basic Services (NYSE:BAS) at 21%; Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) at 20%; and Schlumberger (NYSE:SLB) and Smith International (NYSE:SII) are off about 19%.

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Posted on: August 20, 2008 – 11:17 am in Oil & Gas, , , , , , , , , , ,

Top 10 Early Bird Analyst Calls (ARTC, AGO, FDRY, IFF, PETS, PDS, CRM, SNDK, TEF, TXN)

These are ten of the early bird analyst calls we are seeing this Tuesday morning with over 2 hours to the open:

  • ArthroCare Corp. (NASDAQ: ARTC) Cut to Market Perform at William Blair.
  • Assured Guaranty (NYSE: AGO) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
  • Foundry Networks (NASDAQ: FDRY) Cut to Neutral at Piper Jaffray.
  • International Flavors & Fragrances (NYSE: IFF) Started as Underweight at Lehman.
  • PetMed Express (NASDAQ: PETS) Raised to Neutral from Sell at Piper Jaffray.
  • Precision Drilling (NYSE: PDS) Raised to Outperform at CIBC.
  • salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.
  • SanDisk (NASDAQ: SNDK) Cut to Sell at Citigroup.
  • Telefonica (NYSE: TEF) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
  • Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) Cut to Neutral at Merrill Lynch.

Jon C. Ogg
July 22, 2008

Posted on: July 22, 2008 – 6:19 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , ,

Basic Energy Reports on June Operations; Gets Flak/Props on Grey Wolf Merger (BAS, GW, PDS, RMG)

Oilfield services company Basic Energy Services (NYSE:BAS) released its June operations report this morning. The company has increased its rig count by one over May, and thirty since a year ago. Rig utilization stands at 79%, and drilling utilization is down a few points from May, but up from 63% to 83% over June 2007. These are solid numbers, and the company’s president and CEO expects improvements in pricing to offset higher fuel and labor costs.

The interesting news is behind the numbers (as usual). In April, Basic announced a "merger of equals" with Grey Wolf (NYSE:GW), a well driller. The surviving entity will retain the Grey Wolf name and NYSE ticker. Grey Wolf shareholders will receive $1.82 in cash plus one share of stock in the new company in exchange for four shares of existing Grey Wolf stock. Basic stockholders receive $6.70 in cash and 0.91975 shares of stock in the new company for each share of Basic stock. Then, in early June, Canada’s Precision Drilling Trust (NYSE:PDS) made an unsolicited offer of $9.00/share in cash and stock for Grey Wolf. Precision has bumped its offer twice, and it now stands at $10.00/share. Precision, like Grey Wolf, is a drilling company, and the conventional wisdom seems to be that the deal between Precision and Grey Wolf makes more sense than the Grey Wolf/Basic deal because there is little chance for cost-cutting in the Basic merger.

On Monday, RiskMetrics (NYSE:RMG) weighed in with a report questioning the Basic/Grey Wolf merger, and raising questions of conflict of interest on Grey Wolf’s Board. Yesterday, Egan-Jones Proxy Services recommended that Grey Wolf stockholders approve the Basic merger at the special meeting called for July 15th. Grey Wolf issued a press release citing Egan-Jones’ recommendation.

The combination of Precision Drilling and Grey Wolf yields a larger drilling company, but it’s hard to see how there will be significant cost savings. The Basic/Grey Wolf merger gives Grey Wolf some additional drilling capability, plus services such as completion, workovers, and abandonment. Strategically, the latter deal seems to position the merged company better, but it won’t pay off in a quarter or two. To some shareholders, that quick payoff trumps everything else.   

Paul Ausick
July 9, 2008

Posted on: July 9, 2008 – 10:08 am in Mergers and Buy Outs, Oil & Gas, , , ,

Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Calls (ASMI, ATAI, CCI, EMC, GNA, NFLX, NRG, PDS, TER, WGOV)

These are not the only analyst calls out there, but these are ten calls affecting stocks this Tuesday morning:

  • ASM Intl NV (NASDAQ: ASMI) started as Underperform at Jefferies.
  • ATA Inc. (NASDAQ: ATAI) started as Outperform at Oppenheimer.
  • Crown Castle (NYSE: CCI) started as Buy at Merriman Curhan Ford.
  • EMC (NYSE: EMC) Cut To Market Perform from Outperform at Bernstein; stock indicated down 2%.
  • Gerdau AmeriSteel (NYSE: GNA) started as Buy at Citigroup.
  • Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) Raised to Overweight at Lehman Brothers; stock indicated up 2%.
  • NRG Energy (NYSE: NRG) cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse; stock indicated down 1%.
  • Precision Drilling (NYSE: PDS) raised to Outperform at RBC Capital.
  • Teradyne (NYSE: TER) started as Neutral at Piper Jaffray.
  • Woodward Governor (NASDAQ: WGOV) cut to Neutral at Robert W. Baird; shares down 1.5%.

Jon C. Ogg
May 20, 2008

Jon Ogg produces and edits the "10 Stocks Under $10" weekly newsletter and he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Posted on: May 20, 2008 – 6:23 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , ,