Topic: How To Invest

Hi Pat: I enjoy your articles very much. They are a great help for making some of my decisions. What do you think about Transocean? I would appreciate your comments and recommendations on the company.

Article Excerpt

Transocean Ltd., $38.97, symbol RIG on New York (Shares outstanding: 320.0 million; Market cap: $12.5 billion; www.deepwater.com), is the world’s largest offshore-drilling contractor. The company operates rigs in all of the major offshore-drilling regions, including the Gulf of Mexico, the North Sea, the Middle East and off the coasts of West Africa, the U.K., Norway, Brazil and Canada. Transocean specializes in technically demanding projects in deep water and other harsh environments. Its fleet consists of 45 floating rigs (including 25 ultra-deepwater rigs), 26 mid-water floating rigs and 65 shallow-water rigs. Transocean just bought Norway’s Aker Drilling for $2.2 billion. The deal adds two harsh-environment drill ships Transocean’s fleet. Both are on long-term contracts. Aker has two more of these ships under construction, to be delivered in 2013. The Aker takeover should add to Transocean’s earnings in the current year. Transocean’s shares have fallen steadily from a high of $86 in March 2011. That’s because the company has been forced to take more equipment…