Parker Drilling Company Stock Upgraded (PKD)

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Parker Drilling Company (NYSE:PKD) has been upgraded by TheStreet Ratings from hold to buy. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its compelling growth in net income, revenue growth, expanding profit margins, solid stock price performance and largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures. Although no company is perfect, currently we do not see any significant weaknesses which are likely to detract from the generally positive outlook.

Highlights from the ratings report include:

• The net income growth from the same quarter one year ago has significantly exceeded that of the S&P 500 and the Energy Equipment & Services industry. The net income increased by 4112.6% when compared to the same quarter one year prior, rising from $0.49 million to $20.73 million.
• The revenue growth significantly trails the industry average of 34.4%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly increased by 2.6%. Growth in the company's revenue appears to have helped boost the earnings per share.
• 44.00% is the gross profit margin for PARKER DRILLING CO which we consider to be strong. It has increased significantly from the same period last year. Regardless of the strong results of the gross profit margin, the net profit margin of 11.70% trails the industry average.
• This stock has managed to rise its share value by 40.78% over the past twelve months. Looking ahead, the stock's sharp rise over the last year has already helped drive it to a level which is relatively expensive compared to the rest of its industry. We feel, however, that other strengths this company displays justify these higher price levels.
• PARKER DRILLING CO has shown improvement in its earnings for its most recently reported quarter when compared with the same quarter a year earlier. This company has reported somewhat volatile earnings recently. But, we feel it is poised for EPS growth in the coming year. During the past fiscal year, PARKER DRILLING CO swung to a loss, reporting -$0.14 versus $0.08 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($0.46 versus -$0.14).

Parker Drilling Company, together with its subsidiaries, provides contract drilling and drilling-related services in the United States, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East (AME), the Asia Pacific, and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The company has a P/E ratio of 32.9, below the average energy industry P/E ratio of 138.5 and above the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7. Parker has a market cap of $647.7 million and is part of the basic materials sector and energy industry. Shares are up 29.8% year to date as of the close of trading on Monday.

You can view the full Parker Ratings Report or get investment ideas from our investment research center.

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