If Odfjell Drilling sat on your watchlist instead of in your portfolio, the past year may feel like an avoidable miss. Investors who held Odfjell Drilling over the past year are up 49.1%, including dividends. That outcome invites a sharper question. Back in October 2025, what clues in the completed Special Periodic Surveys and the push toward a fully modern fleet could have signalled that long-term contracts might matter more than worries about North Sea dependence?
A Narrative on Simply Wall St is one investor's written case for a company, with its growth, margin and multiple assumptions spelled out. Those assumptions imply an estimated Fair Value.
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The shares cost NOK81.4 at the start of the period, and anyone looking at Odfjell Drilling then had to choose which story sounded more convincing.
The bullish narrative argued for a fair value of NOK95.1. It leaned on a fully upgraded fleet after Special Periodic Surveys, limited future CapEx, and an assumption that revenue could grow 3.9% a year with profit margins reaching 20.7% over three years.
The bearish view put fair value at NOK67.3. It focused on North Sea dependence, shrinking offshore demand, stricter regulation, and the idea that required fleet upgrades and oversupplied markets could compress margins even if earnings still improved.
The standout development for Odfjell Drilling was contract news. A US$518m award for Deepsea Bergen from Vår Energi and extra Equinor wells on Deepsea Atlantic extended backlog toward 2031, which clearly leaned toward the optimistic long term contracts story. Reported results told a softer margin story, with revenue and profit higher year on year while net margin slipped from 19.0% to 17.1%.
Those facts cut both ways. Contract wins backed the 2025 focus on backlog and fleet readiness. At the same time, the margin dip reminded you to test any high margin assumption against future filings as carefully as the revenue line.
With Odfjell Drilling now at NOK110, this Narrative’s Fair Value sits above the current price rather than below it. The argument leans on tight harsh environment rig supply, firm contract cover and an emphasis on risk control after the Deepsea Atlantic incident.
Before paying today’s price, you would need to judge whether high utilization at solid dayrates across the contracted fleet can actually be sustained.
"The combination of high harsh environment utilization around 90% and the absence of economically attractive newbuild options keeps the rig market tight. This gives Odfjell Drilling scope to seek improved terms on follow on work and potentially lift average dayrates on future contracts that filter through to revenue and EBITDA."
Not everyone reads the same price the same way. → See the higher figure this Narrative lands on, and how it gets there
The story behind this run has already been told. The next one could be taking shape somewhere else. Where could you start looking before it becomes the headline?
Those are three of them. See every one of the 207 solid balance sheet companies →
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