- BMO Capital downgrades the U.S. offshore drilling group to Underperform from Market Perform, expecting industry earnings to continue to slide due to lack of catalysts.
- The firm upgrades Baker Hughes (BHI +1.8%) to Outperform and hikes its price target to $65 from $51, believing BHI's North American assumptions are too low given increased fund flows to the OFS sub-segment; Weatherford (WFT +1.7%) also was upgraded.
- Among several downgrades, the firm cuts Diamond Offshore (DO +0.3%) to Underperform and cuts its price target to $64 from $70, seeing further earnings pressure in Brazil; also lowered were Atwood Oceanics (ATW -3.6%), Ensco (ESV +0.1%), Noble Corp. (NE +0.4%), Seadrill (SDRL -0.2%), Transocean (RIG +0.2%) and Rowan (RDC +0.5%).