Houston, Texas-based Weatherford International, Ltd. is a leading manufacturer and provider of equipment and services used in drilling, completion, and production of oil and natural gas wells. <p> We are upgrading Weatherford shares to Buy from Hold following the recent commodity-price induced weakness in the stock, which has made valuation very compelling for this quality oilfield name. The stock is down roughly 35% in the last 12 weeks, compared to the peer group's average of a 26% pullback and the roughly 4% decline in the broader S&P 500. <p> Concerns about the company's over-exposure to North American onshore drilling in a tentative natural gas price environment are overdone, in our view. The company has a growing international footprint, where the outlook for its integrated project management expertise remains very favorable. Our unchanged $37 price objective reflects 2009 P/E and EV/EBITDA multiples of 12.8x and 7.5x, respectively, well within historical trading ranges. ...
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