Investopedia: Halliburton Has Gotten Interesting Again

Slipping oil prices have definitely taken the steam out of what had been a strong seasonal move in many oil service and equipment stocks. Even so, many in the oil and gas industry seem to think that rig counts have bottomed and that exploration and production activity will start picking up again in 2013 barring a major economic downturn. While the timing and magnitude of that recovery does present some risk to Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) investors, today's valuation looks like a pretty attractive entry point to play an eventual recovery in the services and equipment sector.

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Investopedia: GE Pays Up To Get Into Another Attractive Energy Business

General Electric (NYSE:GE) is not messing around when it comes to making itself into a leading manufacturer of equipment for the oil and gas industry. Having already established a strong presence for itself in areas like subsea and surface equipment, GE is taking a deeper dive into artificial lifts with its high-priced acquisition of Lufkin Industries (Nasdaq:LUFK).

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Seeking Alpha: Patience With Weatherford Should Pay Off

Energy services company Weatherford (WFT) has shown it has ample capabilities in digging deep holes - both for its oil and gas clients and for investors. Years of "growth at any cost" spending, lax (if not wholly inadequate) accounting, and various other accounting misdeeds created some large problems that have been coming home to roost more recently.

There looks to be a light at the end of the tunnel, though, and I don't believe it's an oncoming train. Weatherford has largely cleaned up its tax issues, appears close to resolving its internal accounting control problems, and should soon have closure on matters related to illegal transactions with sanctioned countries. More significantly, management has smartened up about capital allocation and profitable growth, and divestitures should lead to a more focused, more profitable, and less debt-ridden firm.

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Patience With Weatherford Should Pay Off

Investopedia: Baker Hughes Shows That It Can Always Get Worse

Energy services giant Baker Hughes (NYSE:BHI) provides a good example of something I've often said about commodity-related companies - calling/playing a bottom in the cycle is always risky, because these companies have a way of finding new peaks and carving out new troughs that are higher/lower than you think they could be. While Baker Hughes does seem undervalued today, and should be well-positioned to benefit from a recovery in North America and ongoing growth outside, it takes a little faith and even more appetite for risk to buy today on that thesis. By the same token, if you wait for definitive proof of the turn, you'll leave a meaningful amount of capital gains on the table.

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Investopedia: Weatherford Has To Be Better

When it comes to the No. 4 energy services company Weatherford (NYSE:WFT), I have walked the line between supporter and apologist as I thought I saw a lot of potential value in running this business better. Unfortunately, while it is still true that Weatherford has an interesting under-valued business, it's also true that the company's management has to clean up a lot of messes. Consequently, there's value here, but its value that comes with a big asterisk.

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