Returns of Oilfield Services Stocks with High Implied Volatility

As we saw in the previous part of this series, as of September 27, 2016, Tidewater (TDW) has the highest implied volatility among all of the OFS (oilfield services) companies. The stock has fallen 65.1% on a YTD (year-to-date) basis. In the last five days, it has fallen 10.7%.

Below are the YTD returns of the OFS stocks with the highest implied volatility:

• Seadrill (SDRL) at -43.1%
• CARBO Ceramics (CRR) at -41.9%
• Noble (NE) at -48.0%
• Weatherford International (WFT) at -37.9%

Here are the five-day returns for these stocks:

• Seadrill at -5.4%
• CARBO Ceramics at -5.3%
• Noble at 7.2%
• Weatherford International at -3.9%

Below are the YTD returns of Schlumberger (SLB) and the other OFS stocks that we identified previously in this series as having low implied volatility:

• Schlumberger (SLB) – 10.6%
• Halliburton (HAL) – 20%
• Baker Hughes (BHI) – 5%
• FMC Technologies, Inc. (FTI) at -5.9%
• Core Laboratories NV (CLB) at -2.4%

Now, let’s look at the five-day returns for these stocks:

• Schlumberger at -0.1%
• Halliburton at -0.8%
• Baker Hughes at -0.9%
• FMC Technologies at -0.4%
• Core Laboratories NV at -3.9%