John Stephenson Schlumberger Ltd. SLB-N BUY Jul 23, 2010

Neither. Look at the 10-year charts, both lower today than 10 years ago. When flush with money, make acquisitions; then when things turn nasty, take write downs. Result is less than zero value creation for shareholders. The only people making money are the executives.

Is down 9% in the last 3 months. It's too expensive to sell now. 

Best of breed, but shares have not gone up along with oil prices.

They report Friday. Shares haven't rallied despite the bounce in oil prices.

Earnings beat, but revenues miss. She sighs. Shares rallied into the print. EBITDA was good and free cash flow beat expectations. Digital was up 25% YOY. Trades at only 12x forward PE, the best oil services stock. 

Liked their conference call where they told you what was going wrong. Will pop if there's a flare-up in the Middle East.

Oil is simply not doing well.

They report Friday. Rising prices aren't enough to turn around SLB, which has been in the dumps for a year and 4 months. But he expects a positive forecast from them, given drilling optimism.

Sold it. It never became a full position. He bought it because of its last quarter and on deregulation. But oil companies won't drill that much, because it lower the price of oil. 

Was a spec buy. He'd rather buy SLB, because with more drilling, he wants to be in the picks and shovels.