Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. Stock Downgraded (DO)

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Diamond Offshore Drilling (NYSE:DO) has been downgraded by TheStreet Ratings from buy to hold. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures, expanding profit margins and notable return on equity. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including deteriorating net income, weak operating cash flow and a generally disappointing performance in the stock itself.

Highlights from the ratings report include:

• The current debt-to-equity ratio, 0.34, is low and is below the industry average, implying that there has been successful management of debt levels. Along with this, the company maintains a quick ratio of 4.82, which clearly demonstrates the ability to cover short-term cash needs.
• 46.60% is the gross profit margin for DIAMOND OFFSHRE DRILLING INC which we consider to be strong. Regardless of DO's high profit margin, it has managed to decrease from the same period last year. Despite the mixed results of the gross profit margin, DO's net profit margin of 24.10% significantly outperformed against the industry.
• DO, with its decline in revenue, underperformed when compared the industry average of 14.1%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly dropped by 4.7%. Weakness in the company's revenue seems to have hurt the bottom line, decreasing earnings per share.
• The company, on the basis of change in net income from the same quarter one year ago, has underperformed when compared to that of the S&P 500 and greatly underperformed compared to the Energy Equipment & Services industry average. The net income has significantly decreased by 26.1% when compared to the same quarter one year ago, falling from $250.61 million to $185.17 million.
• Net operating cash flow has decreased to $349.84 million or 13.93% when compared to the same quarter last year. In conjunction, when comparing current results to the industry average, DIAMOND OFFSHRE DRILLING INC has marginally lower results.

Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc. operates as an offshore oil and gas drilling contractor worldwide. It offers a range of services in the ultra-deepwater, deepwater, and mid-water markets, as well as in the non-floater or jack-up market. The company has a P/E ratio of 9.5, equal to the average energy industry P/E ratio and below the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7. Shares are up 7.6% year to date as of the close of trading on Thursday.

TheStreet ratings do not represent the views of TheStreet's staff or its contributors. Ratings are established by computer based on metrics for performance (which includes growth, stock performance, efficiency and valuation) and risk (volatility and solvency). Companies with poor cash flow or high debt levels tend to earn lower ratings in our model.

For more information on Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. click any of the following:

• Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. Stock Price

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• Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. Key Stats & Profile

• Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. Earnings

• Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. Ratio Comparison

• Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. Growth Rates

• Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. Balance Sheet

• Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. Cash Flow

• Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. Income Statement