New York, January 6, 2026, 12:01 EST — Regular session
- SLB shares edge lower after a sharp rally tied to Venezuela headlines.
- Evercore ISI upgraded the stock, while Freedom Capital Markets cut it to Hold.
- Traders now look to policy follow-through and SLB’s Jan. 23 results and call.
Shares of SLB (SLB.N) slipped 0.1% to $43.76 by 12:01 p.m. EST on Tuesday as fresh analyst calls clashed after a Venezuela-fuelled surge in oil-linked names. The stock traded between $43.42 and $44.76 on the day. 1
The stock is in focus after U.S. energy shares jumped on Monday on bets that a shift in Washington’s stance could reopen access to Venezuela’s vast reserves, and draw in suppliers needed to lift output. Venezuelan crude is typically “heavy sour” — thick, high-sulfur oil — and “aligns well” with U.S. Gulf Coast refinery configurations, said Ahmad Assiri, a research strategist at Pepperstone, while analysts also warned any meaningful recovery would take time after years of underinvestment. 2
That matters now because the trade has moved quickly from geopolitics to positioning, with investors weighing potential upside in work tied to re-starting production against a softer oil tape and an earnings season around the corner. For SLB, the next test is whether the post-rally bid can hold into results and guidance.
Evercore ISI upgraded SLB to “Outperform” from “In Line” and lifted its price target — an analyst’s estimate of where the stock could trade — to $54 from $38, saying the outlook is “much clearer than it has been in 2+ years.” Evercore also said it expects international, especially Middle East, spending to outpace North America in 2026, a setup it believes favours SLB. 3
SLB rose 8.96% on Monday to close at $43.80, with peers Halliburton (HAL.N) up 7.84% and Baker Hughes (BKR.O) up 4.09% as oilfield services names tracked the broader Venezuela-linked move. 4
But Freedom Capital Markets analyst Sergey Pigarev cut SLB to Hold from Buy and set a $47 price target, arguing “rising oil and gas equities amid declining oil prices is a dangerous game” and calling the Venezuela-driven “euphoria” unjustified. Pigarev said an oversupplied market could keep pressure on hydrocarbon prices into the first half of 2026, raising the risk that late-January earnings reports drag the group. 5
Investors are now watching for concrete policy steps that would clarify the Venezuela trade, and for SLB’s fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 results on January 23, when it plans to release figures at 7:00 a.m. Eastern and hold a conference call at 9:30 a.m. 6
