Duncan-Williams Comments On Diamond Offshore Drilling's 1Q Earnings

According to Duncan-Williams, Diamond Offshore Drilling (NYSE: DO) reported first quarter earnings of $1.79 per share soundly beating the consensus estimate of $1.43 per share and its estimate of $1.52 per share on revenues of $806 million.

Duncan-Williams said that Diamond incurred only 168 days of downtime for the quarter and expects only 21 days in the second quarter. “The quarter was positively impacted by a 16 percent tax rate instead of the estimated 25 percent rate. Lower expenses than expected and a $8 million recovery on bad debt also impacted the quarter. Our 2011 earnings estimate is increased to $6.80 per share from $6.60 per share.”

Diamond Offshore Drilling closed the previous trading day at $78.00.