Zacks Analyst Interview Highlights: Halliburton, Baker Hughes, Diamond Offshore,...

Zacks Analyst Interview Highlights: Halliburton, Baker Hughes, Diamond Offshore, Transocean and Pride

CHICAGO--(Business Wire)--
Zacks.com releases the latest Analyst Interview. Today's interview
is with senior analyst Sheraz Mian, who Halliburton (NYSE: HAL), Baker
Hughes (NYSE: BHI), Diamond Offshore (NYSE: DO), Transocean (NYSE:
RIG) and Pride (NYSE: PDE).

A synopsis of today's Analyst Interview is presented below. The
full article can be read at http://at.zacks.com/?id=2678.

How would you advise investors looking to play the oil & gas space
over the next quarter or two?

Almost all of the oil and gas sub sectors have been under pressure
in recent days due to the weakness in oil prices. On the whole, stock
prices still reflect long-term oil prices that are significantly below
current levels; so they have a lot of room to catch up. Some of these
were cheap even before the current oil price weakness and are
currently at very attractive levels.

One major sub-sector is oilfield services and drilling. These
companies do not need oil prices to be around $130-$140 to make a lot
of money; they will be doing equally good in a $90-$100 oil
environment. My top picks in this group include Halliburton (NYSE:
HAL), Baker Hughes (NYSE: BHI), Diamond Offshore (NYSE: DO),
Transocean (NYSE: RIG) and Pride (NYSE: PDE), to name a few. While the
first two are integrated service companies, the last three are
offshore drillers, with rigs capable of operating in very deep waters.

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About Zacks

The performance of the Zacks Rank portfolios shown above for
annual and year-to-date periods are the linked monthly total returns
(price changes + dividends) of equal weighted hypothetical portfolios,
consisting of those stocks with the indicated Zacks Rank, assuming
monthly rebalancing and zero transaction costs. These are not the
returns of actual portfolios. The hypothetical portfolios were created
at the beginning of each month from Jan 1988 forward based on the
values of the Zacks Rank available to Zacks' clients before the
beginning of each month.

The portfolios created monthly from 1988 through September 2006
exclude ADRs and are comprised of stocks that have the indicated Zacks
Rank and were covered by at least two analysts at the time of the
stocks inclusion in the portfolio. Starting in October 2006 and going
forward, the portfolios are comprised of all stocks with the indicated
Zacks Rank and do not exclude ADRs, which is more reflective of the
list of stocks that customers will find on the Zacks web sites. 2007
returns are for the period of Jan 1 - Jun 30, 2007. These performance
numbers have been audited from 1995 through 2003 by Autschuler
Melovan, a division of American Express Financial.

Zacks.com
Mark Vickery
312-265-9380
Visit: www.zacks.com

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