Big global growth ahead for Precision

Article Excerpt

PRECISION DRILLING CORP. $7.48 (Toronto symbol PD; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resource sector; Shares outstanding: 276.3 million; Market cap: $2.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.0; No dividends paid since February 2009; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; www.precisiondrilling.com) provides contract-drilling services to land-based oil and gas producers, mainly in North America. It had 363 rigs in service as of September 30, 2012. The company is slowly expanding its international operations: it now has a total of eight rigs in Mexico and Saudi Arabia. Precision’s overseas business now accounts for 5% of its revenue, up from just 1% a year ago. In the three months ended September 30, 2012, the company’s earnings fell 52.8%, to $39.4 million, or $0.14 a share. A year earlier, it earned $83.5 million, or $0.29 a share. The drop is largely because the year-earlier results included a $25-million foreign-exchange gain, compared to a loss of $4 million in the latest quarter. The extra costs of expanding overseas also weighed on the company’s latest…