Deutsche Bank's 3 Favorite Oil Service Picks: Patterson-UTI, Halliburton, C&J

It’s been a great year for the stock market in 2017, with the S&P 500 up 13.7 percent year to date. However, you wouldn’t know it by looking at oil services stocks, which have been hit hard by persistently low oil prices.

On Tuesday, however, Deutsche Bank initiated coverage on 20 oil services stocks, including three stocks that represent its best long-term investment ideas in the space.

According to analyst David Havens, underperforming stocks and downward earnings revisions are signs the market is finally letting go of its hope for a quick rebound in the oil market.

“We are encouraged by the judicious selloff in the stocks year-to-date, and by what also appears to be a market that is acknowledging the obsolescence of the old cyclical playbook,” Havens wrote.

At current prices, Havens sees little downside remaining for the oil services space and didn’t set a single Sell rating among the 20 stocks covered.

Havens said the availability of “tight” U.S. oil supply has changed the cyclical nature of the oil business and made it relatively easy for oil production to quickly adjust to rising prices. In that respect, the top oil services companies will be those that demonstrate innovative business models and specialize in niche technologies, Havens wrote.

Deutsche Bank set Buy ratings on Schlumberger Limited. (NYSE: SLB), Core Laboratories N.V. (NYSE: CLB), Transocean LTD (NYSE: RIG), Weatherford International Plc (NYSE: WFT), Superior Energy Services, Inc. (NYSE: SPN) and Smart Sand Inc (NASDAQ: SND).

However, Havens said domestic U.S. companies with exposure to pressure pumping are best-positioned to recover business in the long term.

Deutsche Bank named Buy-rated Patterson-UTI Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ: PTEN), Halliburton Company (NYSE: HAL) and C&J Energy Services Inc (NYSE: CJ) its top three stock picks in the oil services space.

Disclosure: The author is long HAL and SLB.

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