Out Fox The $treet

Weatherford reported disappointing Q3 results. The company has left the stock for dead while the market is starting to rebound. The stock remains a speculative play in the sector for a catch-up trade. As other industry players trade near multi-year highs,  Weatherford International (NYSE: WFT )  is still trading at the lows. The recent  quarterly results  weren't the best, but the market appears stressed out for no reason. Read the full article on Seeking Alpha.  Disclosure: Long WFT. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

Weatherford International (WFT) reported some horrible Q3 numbers, but the stock rebounded solidly on the news. The daily low of $5.26 test the lows for the last few months to only see the stock rebound near the highs of the day. The interesting part of the story is that the industry sees the market bottoming out. Maybe even more important, a competitor like Halliburton (HAL) is shifting back towards focusing on profits over market share. This should help reduce some pressure on the bottom line at Weatherford. More research: Halliburton: Some Perspective Disclosure: No position. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

Only last week, Schlumberger ( NYSE: SLB     ) produced solid results based on a strong operating environment in the international segments. Those results would generally present a positive background for other international focused oil-service stocks such as Weatherford International  ( NYSE: WFT     ) . Unfortunately, though, Weatherford did its typical pre-announcement of bad results regardless of the operating environment. Weatherford spent the last couple of years dealing with accounting and tax issues that were about to become part of its past. After reporting solid third-quarter results, investors had expected the smallest of the oil-service majors to finally produce solid results for investors. Instead, the company came out with preliminary earnings in a range of $0.05 to $0.08, partially hit by an effective tax rate of 50%. Analysts had expected earnings to grow sequentially from $0.23 reported in the third quarter. Read the full art...

Within every sector, the difference between the winning and losing stocks can be very dramatic. In the case of the oil services sector, the drastic valuation differences between Schlumberger ( NYSE: SLB     ) and Weatherford International ( NYSE: WFT     ) are at the extremes. Though the sector has four domestic heavyweights, Schlumberger and Weatherford are the most focused on the international scene, providing a clear example for investors that the right geographical focus isn't enough. Over the last few years, Weatherford has lacked execution due to tax issues and costs overruns, which have hurt the stock. Read the full article here . Disclosure: Long WFT. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

After a few rocky years with major accounting issues regarding taxes and major losses from an Iraqi contract, Weatherford International ( NYSE: WFT     ) finally appears on a path to success. The oil services firm famously shifted headquarters to Switzerland back in 2009 to reduce taxes and ended up paying a higher effective tax rate, then ran into issues requiring a restatement of taxes. All of those issues led to a major slump in the stock as 2012 ended. In the latest quarter, the company showed improvements in operations with a focus on margins; the effective tax rate also dropped to an incredible low rate of 20%. Finally, Weatherford is on track and could achieve numbers comparable to other top oil service firms such as Halliburton ( NYSE: HAL     ) and Baker Hughes ( NYSE: BHI ...

As the Mexican government moves to reform the slumping energy industry, a whole slew of firms in the US stand to benefit. According to a Merrill Lynch report  , analysts estimate that Mexico spent about $8 billion on drilling and completion (D&C) services in 2012 and expect that number to jump another $2.5 billion in the next two years. Merrill Lynch lists a slew of stocks that will benefit from the hydrocarbon surge in Mexico. The firms include the typical large oil service and equipment providers, as well as offshore drilling specialists. Remember that a prime reason for the decline in oil output from Mexico has been a lack of expertise in drilling complicated offshore wells. While this might be a scenario where a rising ship raises all boats, a few stocks stand out to benefit the most. Read the full article here . Disclosure: Long WFT. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

As earnings for Q113 start up, one of the most intriguing stocks remains Weatherford International ( WFT ) . The company has infamously failed to accurately remediate federal income taxes for several years now. Even as Weatherford reported record revenues for Q412, earnings failed to match the previous years. The company also incredibly recorded an effective tax rate for the quarter of an amazing 92% to cap off a string of disappointing results. The company is a multi-national oilfield services firm with a large international presence operating in over 100 countries. For 2012, international revenue accounted for 58% of total revenue. Notably it also focuses more on liquids production in North America. With domestic natural gas prices surging, all oil services firms will benefit though Halliburton ( HAL ) and Baker Hughes ( BHI ) are the most focused on domestic gas. Weatherford is a play on that rebound as domestic pricing will improve, but in addition the stock will ...

Over a year after announcing accounting problems in the tax department, Weatherford International (WFT) continues to struggle to complete the restatement. For investors, the most boggling aspect of the tax restatement is that the company moved headquarters to Switzerland in order to reduce tax liabilities, yet the company continues to incur the highest in the industry. The international oil services provider guided to an effective tax rate of 45% for all of 2012. More importantly the guidance for 2013 is for the effective tax rate to drop to a more historical 34% rate. The real improvement will come in later years as the company finally benefits from expected reduced rates. So how should investors value the earnings of a company with temporarily high tax rates? The market spoke with dramatically lower stock prices to the tune of a 52-week low. Read the full article at Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: Long WFT. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

Last Friday, oil services companies Baker Hughes (BHI) and Schlumberger (SLB) reported earnings that helped drive up the Oil Services Index (OIH) by 1.2%. A strong performance considering the market was weak with the S&P 500 falling more than 1%. If anything, the price jumps were more based on a relief rally that the industry didn't keep falling off a cliff after a very weak start to the year. Stocks in the sector, including Weatherford International (WFT) , had been trading close to two year lows. The industry in general had been undergoing a boom with demand for more complex and time consuming drilling, completion, and pressure pumping services due to drilling deeper wells in more harsh conditions or requiring more complex techniques due to horizontal drilling versus the previously more common vertical drilling. Read the full article at Seeking Article Disclaimer: Long WFT. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

As the two year anniversary of this bull market that started in March 2009 has come and gone, it's time to actually review some of the facts surrounding typical bull markets. From listening to numerous media reports yesterday, its common place for analysts and hosts to spew out information without researching the past. From this Bloomberg article , numerous real facts about the market were revealed. It's also revealing that alot of the players that called the bottom remain bullish and alot of the cronies that called for a further correction are still bearish. Sometimes it makes you wonder if any of the so called bears had any real insight other then a broken clock is correct twice a day. It also makes me wonder if we'll say the same about the bulls down the road. Clearly a two year rally without a 20% correction seems impressive and sounds like a very long time. At least thats what you get from the typical media. But is it really all that impressive? According to resear...