Out Fox The $treet

Ensco completed a surprise secondary, sending the stock down sharply. The offshore driller continues to easily surpass estimates due to strong operations during the severe downturn. The company has improved the balance sheet after completing a below-market debt offering making the stock trading far below book value appealing to new investors. In an interesting move,  Ensco (NYSE: ESV )  placed a secondary offering to raise cash to cover corporate needs during this downturn in offshore drilling. The offering is somewhat peculiar considering analysts forecast the company remaining profitable even in 2017, but the news follows a similar amount spent to repurchase debt at a large discount. Read the full article at Seeking Alpha.  Disclosure: No position mentioned. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

Atwood Oceanics remains well positioned for the offshore drilling market. Barclays placed an extremely negative call on the deepwater drilling segment even after huge declines by the associated stocks. The company has a modern fleet of rigs that already produce the majority of EBITDA. The negative call on the offshore drillers by Barclays is strange considering the segment is already beaten down. The analyst call was very bearish on some of the drillers that lack a fleet of modern rigs, but the call was rather neutral on Atwood Oceanics (NYSE: ATW ) despite the positive rig position. Read the full article at Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: Long ATW. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

Ocean Rig priced a perplexing secondary offering below the market price and substantially below book value. The apparent negative secondary has the positive outcome of reducing the ownership position of DryShips. The stock offers a compelling value at or below the offering price. The news of the day on Ocean Rig (NASDAQ: ORIG ) continues to highlight the risks of owning a stock with a weak owner. Prior to the news of the last few weeks, DryShips (NASDAQ: DRYS ) was listed as owning 59.2% of the outstanding shares. Prior to the recent moves, the position in Ocean Rig was worth more than the valuation the market gave DryShips showing the concern or its financial position. Read the full article on Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: No positions mentioned. Please review the disclaimer page for more details.