Investors Shrug Off Schlumberger Earnings Miss

Investors Shrug Off Schlumberger Earnings Miss

Schlumberger opened the earnings season for the oilfield services sector with higher profit that nonetheless missed Wall Street forecasts. Income in the January-March quarter was $1.34 billion, or $1.09 a share, compared with $1.18 billion, or 96 cents a share, in the 2007 period. Revenue rose to $6.29 billion from $5.46 billion.

On average, analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial expected profit of $1.11 a share on sales of $6.32 billion.

“It had been widely expected that Schlumberger would have a weak (first quarter), but it appears that the underlying business remains quite strong,” said Goldman Sachs analyst Charles Minervino.

Investors agreed, sending shares up $5.70, or 6 percent, to $101 in afternoon trading.

“While a Schlumberger miss is probably not great for the sector, overall North America was better than expected, which is positive for Halliburton, BJ Services, Weatherford and Oil States International,” said Minervino. “Most of the shortfall was related to the seismic business which is not as impactful to most other companies in the space.”

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