5 Best Dow Dividend Stocks To Watch Right Now

5 Best Dow Dividend Stocks To Watch Right Now: Transocean Inc.(RIG)

Transocean Ltd. provides offshore contract drilling services for oil and gas wells worldwide. It offers deepwater and harsh environment drilling, oil and gas drilling management, and drilling engineering and drilling project management services. The company also offers well and logistics services. In addition, it engages in oil and gas exploration, development, and production activities primarily in the United States offshore Louisiana and Texas, and in the United Kingdom sector of the North Sea. As of February 10, 2011, the company owned, had partial ownership interests in, and operated 138 mobile offshore drilling units, including 47 high-specification floaters, 25 midwater floaters, 9 high-specification jackups, 54 standard jackups, and 3 other rigs, as well as 1 ultra-deepwater floater and 3 high-specification jackups under construction. Transocean Ltd. was founded in 1953 and is based in Zug, Switzerland.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Shares of Seadrill have dropped 2.9% to $36.56 at 10:50 a.m., but its release doesn’t appear to have had much impact on other drillers. Transocean (RIG), for instance, has gained 0.4% to $38.66 today, while Diamond Offshore (DO) has risen 0.8% to $44.76 and Noble (NE) is up 0.5% at $27.94.

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  One day after Transocean (RIG) reported solid earnings, offshore drillers like Atwood Oceanics (ATW), Noble (NE) and Seadrill (SDRL) continue to show resilience.

  AFP/Getty Images

  Shares of Transocean have gained 0.6% to $38.44 at 11:55 a.m., while Atwood Oceanics has risen 1% to $48.35, Noble has advanced 2.1% to $26.45 and Seadrill is up 1.3% at $36.20.

  The question now: Can the strength last? Jefferies’ Brad Handler and team are just thankful that “the tone doesn’t sound worse” ! from Transocean. They explain:

  While outlook commentary from peers this earnings cycle felt incrementally worse vs. earlier, Transocean’s tone was laced with optimism relative to its own prior views and peers’. That said, this relative positive view still felt more vague (hopeful) than grounded in reliable pending developments. For now, we still see challenges, in particular for Transocean’s 5th G fleet as rigs scramble down market/incur idle time. On this point, we note the backlog swap from midwater semi GSF Rig 135 onto UDW 5th G semi Sedco Energy given a pending job on the former highlights that there was an incremental low-spec midwater job, but not a UDW one. Further, the potential for prolonged weakness in the N. Sea (possibly in the early stages of a downturn today), leads us to lower ’16E. Nonetheless, since Transocean called the downturn well ahead of peers in mid-’13, we walk away modestly more comfortable that a broader ’16 recovery could still be in play .

  UBS analyst Angie Sedita and team think Transocean has a tough decision ahead:

  [Raise] short-term debt or reduce the dividend? On our current estimates the company will need to tap into the full $3 bil revolver in 2015-2016 and will still be drawing down cash. In 2015, we believe Transocean will have to make the decision to either reduce the dividend or increase its debt. Our earnings forecasts are not worst case scenario an

source from Top Stocks For 2015:http://www.topstocksblog.com/5-best-dow-dividend-stocks-to-watch-right-now.html