Weatherford Jumps 8.6% as Q3 Beat Comes With Venezuela Growth Plan
WFRD sits 33% above its 52-week low of $64.67.
Summary
Weatherford beat on both lines for Q3: EPS of $1.66 versus $1.12 a year ago, with revenue of $1.14B down 7% year over year but still ahead of the $1.134B consensus. The bigger driver for the stock, up 8.6% Wednesday, is the Venezuela story. CEO Girish Saligram said the business could ramp past $100M in revenue within a year and eventually approach its prior $500M annual peak, potentially reaching about 10% of total company revenue. Weatherford booked its first new Venezuela revenue in Q3 after a major operator awarded a pumping systems contract, though startup costs will weigh near term. This follows the October 20 8-K and Reuters report on the beat; the call added the forward Venezuela numbers that are moving shares today.
At the time of this announcement, WFRD was trading at $85.77 on NASDAQ in the Energy & Transportation sector, with a market capitalization of approximately $6.2B. The 52-week trading range was $64.67 to $113.15. This news item was assessed with positive market sentiment and an importance score of 7 out of 10. Source: Seeking Alpha.