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Oil field services stocks due for comeback: Analyst
Investors should keep an eye on oil field services stocks as they are due for a rebound, Kurt Hallead, of RBC Capital Markets, said Friday.
"We think we're close to a bottom in the oil field services cycle. The rig count has been slowly declining at a less-severe rate. We think the bottom in the rig count will be put in place sometime here in the second quarter," Hallead told CNBC's " Squawk on the Street ."
RBC's co-head of global energy research said that companies like Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB), Halliburton (NYSE: HAL), Nabors Industries (NYSE: NBR) and Patterson-UTI (NASDAQ: PTEN) are in a good position heading into the second half of 2015.
Hallead made his remarks the day after Schlumberger announced it would cut 11,000 jobs, in addition to the 9,000 jobs it had already planned to cut in January.
The announcement came as the company reported first-quarter earnings that beat expectations. However, it also said revenue dropped 19 percent from the fourth quarter.
Schlumberger shares were up more than 1 percent in late-morning trading Friday, while the broader markets tumbled.
"Anytime you go through a market downturn for energy, and when crude oil prices get cut in half, you always have to brace for the worst. You kind of expect the company to react to that as much as they don't want to let good-quality people go, but you have to adjust to the situation," Hallead said.
U.S. crude (New York Mercantile Exchange: @CL.1) prices were down about 1 percent to $56.15 per barrel in late-morning trading, while Brent crude (Intercontinental Exchange Europe: @LCO.1) edged up to $64.06.
Disclosure: RBC Capital owns more than 1 percent of Schlumberger's stock. Schlumberger is also an investment banking client of RBC Capital.
-Reuters contributed to this report.
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