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Gold/Mining/Energy : Strictly: Drilling and oil-field services -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: The Ox who wrote (63439)	3/30/2000 12:05:00 PM
From: jim_p	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 95453

Hard to believe that the capital markets are opening back up for a $4.00 stock? I would have expected to see the higher quality stocks to tap the equity markets first. Jim

To: The Ox who wrote (63439)	3/30/2000 10:25:00 PM
From: jbe	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 95453

Are there any buy-and-holders out there? If so, seems to me there is some reason to worry about the fundamentals of some of the oil service stocks (most conspicuously, Grey Wolf). Thanks to the drubbing they took over the past several years, such firms are in real financial trouble; negative cashflow, high debt, and/or negative (!) interest coverage. Take a look at GW. With a price/cashflow ratio of -103.2 (!), a debt/equity ratio of 199.7, and interest coverage of -1.4, no wonder Grey Wolf is doing what it can to keep another sort of wolf from the door! Of course, few of the larger firms are in such dire straits. And a few of them, notably TDW (of course!), GIFI, and VRC, are in admirable financial shape, with no debt at all, cashflow out the wazoo, etc. Yet the only company that seems to have weathered the storm without so much as getting the decks wet seems to be Hanover Compressor. Why is that?? In any event, is anyone confident that oil prices will hold steady for long enough to allow the oil service companies to get back on their feet? Of all the companies I bought back in the fall of 1997, I kept only one -- CLB. Now, almost three years later, it has finally reached -- and surpassed -- the price I originally paid for it. Yet, looking at its numbers, especially at its outrageously high p/e & projected p/e, I have to say it is overpriced. That makes me nervous. <g> And I wonder whether buying these stocks now is not as speculative as buying an internut, or a biotech, or a telecommunications stock -- perhaps even more so, since it's not possible to posit the kind of future growth rates for oil service that are posited for the latter industries. Trading is one thing; investing is another. Any thoughts?