Oilfield Service's Outlook Appears Solid: 3 Stocks to Watch

SLB HAL BKR

The oil pricing environment continues to be favorable for upstream activities, thereby brightening the outlook for oilfield service companies, at least for 2024. Three companies from the oilfield space that are well poised to gain are Halliburton Company (HAL - Free Report) , SLB (SLB - Free Report) and Baker Hughes Company (BKR - Free Report) .

Oil Price Still High

West Texas Intermediate crude price is trading at more than $75 per barrel, which is highly favorable for exploration and production activities. Also, in its short-term energy outlook, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (“EIA”) projected the average spot price of West Texas Intermediate crude at $77.99 per barrel this year, still a handsome price for upstream operations. The continuation of the production restraint policy by OPEC+ and the deceleration of tight oil production growth in the United States have been aiding the commodity price.

Handsome Oilfield Service Demand

A handsome crude pricing environment may create incentives for more exploration and production activities. This, in turn, will generate demand for oilfield services as the oilfield service players help upstream companies to efficiently drill oil and gas wells.

We have highlighted three stocks that investors should keep an eye on. All the stocks currently carry a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

3 Stock to Gain

Halliburton, along with fourth-quarter 2023 results, provided a promising outlook. The company is expecting oilfield service demand to remain strong, which will aid it in generating significant cashflows this year. This will help Halliburton continue to return capital to shareholders and lower its debt burden.

SLB also expects the business scenario to remain favorable for oilfield service companies this year. The company is foreseeing the potential for more than $100 billion of offshore final investment decisions across the world from 2024 to 2025. This has further strengthened the subsea outlook. For this year, SLB projects more than $4 billion in additional subsea bookings.

Baker Hughes expects spending for oilfield services in the international market to increase by high single-digits. Notably, in the Oilfield Services & Equipment business unit, the company continues to witness growing revenues from the international market.  

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