Mike,
Man, am I glad to finally have someone to talk to about MD! I don't have details about numbers. I have talked (email) with Bill Flores, COO. He's very good about responding to my questions. What doesn't make sense is that the good things you're aware of with MD are not reflected in the price or the brokers' evaluations. When MD was reduced from "buy" to "outperform" the price naturally went down and I contacted Flores. He said company officials had the same questions as I did--- why? He said no brokers ever contacted the company before the downgrade and the purchase of the new rig (now waiting for a contract to put it into service) was not factored in. It has been frustrating. I had to make a choice whether to buy MD at 9 1/2 or GLM at 12. I chose MD and since then GLM has held up a gain of about 2 1/2 while MD has struggled to average 9! Everybody has talked about a runup in oil services' prices but I think the runup happened in May and it's run out of "gas!" And, I don't know why. Have you seen "hdwin"'s comments on the GLM thread? He is a broker in TX and he had some positive, informative things to say about oil drilling and these two companies. I'm waiting for a pop after 3qtr earnings. After that, if the company doesn't get some respect I'll consider selling. They have 14 rigs, 1 waiting for next contract, 13 working, increased day rates (probably around $25,000), and new contracts are being negotiated for longer terms. I think two things may be working against MD. Their PE is higher than some other drillers and the share dilution is high. All of the drillers have a huge number of shares issued, but MD is smaller in capitalization. I really believe MD is trying to attract a buyer, to be aquired. But, with the current high revenues for everyone, there's no pressure for companies to merge right now. MD, with no debt, and operating at full capacity, would seem to be a good prospect for aquisition. I've been hoping that would happen but nothing yet. We'll see. Any more thoughts? Keep me posted.
Greg |
