Two pluses for Precision

Article Excerpt

PRECISION DRILLING CORP. $7.33 (Toronto symbol PD; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 275.6 million; Market cap: $2.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.8; No dividends paid since February 2009; SI Rating: Extra Risk) provides contract-drilling services, so it should also benefit from more onshore exploration in the wake of the BP oil spill. It owns 352 land-based rigs in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. The company also recently renegotiated some of the loans it used to buy U.S.-based contract driller Grey Wolf Inc. in 2008. That will cut its annual interest costs by $15 million. Precision earned $62.0 million, or $0.22 a share, in the first three months of 2010. Precision Drilling is a buy. buy…