Schlumberger Just A Couple of Points

Schlumberger (SLB) reported results and pontificated that “The worst, provided the economy continues to show signs of recovery, is behind us.” That’s great guidance. Anyone can come up with that one.

A couple of balance sheet items catch investor’s attention.

Fixed Income investments held to maturity reached $625 million up from $470 million nine months ago. No real explanation as to why we need the fixed income investments in this magnitude, no information about the securities themselves or why they are held to maturity. Schlumberger is not a bond fund.

Post retirement benefits dropped by approximately $1.1 billion in the past nine months. Is this all attributable to a drop in head count? How did this come to be? The performance in this line item is stellar and could use a few words of comment. The guy who did this deserves a big fat bonus.