Topic: How To Invest

What do you feel the future holds for Trican Well Service? Thank you.

Article Excerpt

Trican Well Service, $0.51, symbol TCW on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 148.9 million; Market cap: $70.7 million; www.tricanwellservice.com), provides specialized products, equipment and services that are used during the exploration, drilling and development of oil and gas reserves. Calgary-based Trican operates in Canada, the U.S., Russia, Kazakhstan, Colombia, Saudi Arabia and Norway. Falling oil and gas prices have cut drilling activity in Canada and the U.S. by about 50% in the past year. That lowered Trican’s revenue by 52.7% in the third quarter of 2015, to $325.5 million from $688.5 million a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, it lost $53.6 million, or $0.36 a share, compared to a profit of $36.2 million, or $0.24 a share. A big risk factor is Trican’s total debt of $752.9 million, which is a very high 10.6 times its currently depressed market cap of $70.7 million. The company now hopes to sell its U.S. pressure-pumping business for an undisclosed sum to raise funds to pay down some…