Share count
1.4Bpeak FY2023
← All companies ← SLAB Manual SLDB → ← SEI Oilfield Services & Equipment STAK →
SLB, SLB Limited
Oilfield Services & Equipment capital-intensive
SLB is an oilfield services company. It sells the technology, equipment, and crews that oil and gas producers use to drill wells and bring hydrocarbons to the surface. It makes its money on contracts to construct wells and to supply the production systems that operate them, so it is paid out of its customers' spending budgets rather than out of oil it does not own.
With a global presence in more than 100 countries and employees representing almost twice as many nationalities, we work each day on innovating energy technology, delivering digital at scale, decarbonizing industries, and developing and scaling new energy systems that accelerate the energy transition.
With nearly a century of market and technology leadership, SLB is well positioned and committed to being a leader in providing solutions to address this trilemma.
The business
What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.
Revenue · FY2025
$35.7B
−1.6% YoY · 9% 5-yr CAGR
Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average
Revenue $35.9B 5-yr avg $31.2B
Gross margin 77%
Revenue $8.7B +2.7% vs yr-ago qtr
Net income $761M yr-ago $829M
Net margin 8.7% yr-ago 9.8%
The business in brief
read the 10-K →What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.
- What it is
- Revenue is led by Production Systems (37%) and Well Construction (33%), with 3 more segments behind.
- What moves the needle
- The governing question is whether this is a franchise or a contractor to a cyclical commodity: SLB owns no barrel, so its revenue follows what producers choose to spend on drilling, and the filing itself describes a long history of operating in a cyclical industry. The tests to watch are pricing power when activity turns down, whether its technology and scale let it hold margin while rivals cut, and the cost discipline a capital-heavy business demands when it carries net debt rather than net cash. The bad case is a deep down-cycle in which customers defer projects, prices weaken, and fixed costs and borrowings press on returns. The record below holds the margins, the returns on capital, and the debt.
- Is it a good business?
- Return on capital has sat near the cost of capital (median 13%). By owner earnings: roughly 12% of revenue reaches owners as cash, consistently. This is price-taker territory, where the balance sheet and the cycle matter more than any multiple; the rest is in the 10-K.
Drafted from the company's filings and reviewed by hand; every number is shown in full in the sections below.
Where the money comes from
read the 10-K →Revenue spreads across 6 segments, the largest Production Systems at 37%.
Revenue by reportable segment, FY2025
- Production Systems37%$13.3B
- Well Construction33%$11.9B
- Reservoir Performance19%$6.8B
- Digital Integration7%$2.7B
- All Other6%$2.0B
- Eliminations Other-3%($940M)
From the segment footnote of the company's own 10-K. Shares are of total revenue; the profit bar shows each segment's share of segment operating profit, before unallocated corporate costs.
The record
Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.
The record, 2016–2025
realized figures from each filing · older years to the left| 2016’16 | 2017’17 | 2018’18 | 2019’19 | 2020’20 | 2021’21 | 2022’22 | 2023’23 | 2024’24 | 2025’25 | TTMTTMMar 2026 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income statement | |||||||||||
| $27.8B | $30.4B | $32.8B | $32.9B | $23.6B | $22.9B | $28.1B | $33.1B | $36.3B | $35.7B | $35.9B | RevenueRevenue |
| 75% | 73% | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 77% | Gross marginGross mgn |
| 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 2% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev |
| 4% | 3% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | R&D / revenueR&D/rev |
| $3.3B | $3.9B | $4.2B | $4.0B | $2.4B | $3.4B | $5.0B | $6.5B | $6.1B | $4.8B | $6.8B | Operating incomeOp. inc. |
| 11.8% | 12.9% | 12.8% | 12.1% | 10.2% | 14.7% | 17.8% | 19.7% | 16.7% | 13.4% | 18.9% | Operating marginOp. mgn |
| ($1.7B) | ($1.5B) | $2.1B | ($10.1B) | ($10.5B) | $1.9B | $3.4B | $4.2B | $4.5B | $3.4B | $3.3B | Net incomeNet inc. |
| — | — | 17% | — | — | 19% | 18% | 19% | 20% | 20% | 19% | Effective tax rateTax rate |
| Cash flow & returns | |||||||||||
| $6.3B | $5.7B | $5.7B | $5.4B | $2.9B | $4.7B | $3.7B | $6.6B | $6.6B | $6.5B | $6.3B | Operating cash flowOp. cash |
| $4.1B | $3.8B | $3.6B | $3.6B | $2.6B | $2.1B | $2.1B | $2.3B | $2.5B | $2.6B | $2.7B | DepreciationDeprec. |
| $3.6B | $3.0B | ($326M) | $11.6B | $10.5B | $326M | ($2.2B) | ($171M) | ($694M) | $140M | ($43M) | Working capital & otherWC & other |
| $2.1B | $2.1B | $2.2B | $1.7B | $1.1B | $1.1B | $1.6B | $1.9B | $1.9B | $1.7B | $1.6B | CapexCapex |
| 7.4% | 6.9% | 6.6% | 5.2% | 4.7% | 5.0% | 5.8% | 5.9% | 5.3% | 4.7% | 4.6% | Capex / revenueCapex/rev |
| $4.2B | $3.6B | $3.6B | $3.7B | $1.8B | $3.5B | $2.1B | $4.7B | $4.7B | $4.8B | $4.7B | Owner earningsOwner earn. |
| 15.1% | 11.7% | 10.8% | 11.3% | 7.7% | 15.3% | 7.5% | 14.2% | 12.9% | 13.4% | 13.0% | Owner earnings marginOE mgn |
| $4.2B | $3.6B | $3.6B | $3.7B | $1.8B | $3.5B | $2.1B | $4.7B | $4.7B | $4.8B | $4.7B | Free cash flowFCF |
| 15.1% | 11.7% | 10.8% | 11.3% | 7.7% | 15.3% | 7.5% | 14.2% | 12.9% | 13.4% | 13.0% | Free cash flow marginFCF mgn |
| $2.4B | $847M | $292M | $23M | $33M | $103M | $58M | $242M | $553M | — | $553M | AcquisitionsAcquis. |
| $2.6B | $2.8B | $2.8B | $2.8B | $1.7B | $699M | $848M | $1.3B | $1.5B | $1.6B | $1.6B | Dividends paidDiv. paid |
| — | — | 7% | — | — | 10% | 14% | 17% | 15% | 11% | — | ROICROIC |
| -4% | -4% | 6% | -43% | -87% | 13% | 19% | 21% | 21% | 13% | 13% | Return on equityROE |
| −11% | −12% | −2% | −54% | −101% | 8% | 15% | 14% | 14% | 7% | 6% | Retained to equityRetained/eq |
| Balance sheet | |||||||||||
| $6.3B | $3.3B | $1.3B | $1.0B | $2.2B | $1.4B | $1.2B | $1.1B | $1.1B | $1.2B | $3.7B | Cash & investmentsCash+inv |
| $9.4B | $8.1B | $7.9B | $7.7B | $5.2B | $5.3B | $6.8B | $7.8B | $8.0B | $8.7B | $9.0B | ReceivablesReceiv. |
| $4.2B | $4.0B | $4.0B | $4.1B | $3.4B | $3.3B | $4.0B | $4.4B | $4.4B | $5.0B | $5.3B | InventoryInvent. |
| $4.0B | $4.6B | $4.7B | $4.8B | $2.9B | $3.2B | $3.9B | $4.6B | $4.2B | $4.9B | $11.1B | Accounts payablePayables |
| $9.6B | $7.5B | $7.2B | $7.1B | $5.7B | $5.4B | $6.8B | $7.6B | $8.2B | $8.9B | $3.2B | Operating working capitalOper. WC |
| $23.9B | $18.5B | $15.7B | $15.5B | $12.9B | $12.7B | $15.0B | $17.7B | $18.6B | $19.5B | $19.3B | Current assetsCur. assets |
| $15.1B | $15.3B | $13.5B | $13.1B | $10.5B | $10.4B | $12.0B | $13.4B | $12.8B | $14.7B | $14.4B | Current liabilitiesCur. liab. |
| 1.6× | 1.2× | 1.2× | 1.2× | 1.2× | 1.2× | 1.2× | 1.3× | 1.4× | 1.3× | 1.3× | Current ratioCurr. ratio |
| $9.0B | $25.1B | $24.9B | $25.0B | $13.0B | $13.0B | $13.0B | $14.1B | $14.6B | $16.8B | $16.9B | GoodwillGoodwill |
| $78.0B | $72.0B | $70.5B | $56.3B | $42.4B | $41.5B | $43.1B | $48.0B | $48.9B | $54.9B | $54.5B | Total assetsAssets |
| $18.4B | $14.9B | $14.6B | $14.8B | $16.0B | $13.3B | $10.6B | $10.8B | $11.0B | $9.7B | $11.6B | Total debtDebt |
| $12.1B | $11.6B | $13.3B | $13.7B | $13.9B | $11.9B | $9.4B | $9.8B | $9.9B | $8.6B | $7.9B | Net debt / (cash)Net debt |
| 5.7× | 6.9× | 7.3× | 6.5× | 4.3× | 6.2× | 10.2× | 13.0× | 11.8× | 8.6× | 12.9× | Interest coverageInt. cov. |
| $41.1B | $36.8B | $36.2B | $23.8B | $12.1B | $15.0B | $17.7B | $20.2B | $21.1B | $26.1B | $26.2B | Shareholders’ equityEquity |
| 1.0% | 1.1% | 1.1% | 1.2% | 1.7% | 1.4% | 1.1% | 0.9% | 0.9% | 0.9% | 1.0% | Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev |
| — | — | — | $8.8B | — | — | — | — | — | $210M | $210M | Goodwill written downGW imp. |
| Per share | |||||||||||
| 1.36B | 1.39B | 1.39B | 1.39B | 1.39B | 1.43B | 1.44B | 1.44B | 1.44B | 1.44B | 1.51B | Shares out (diluted)Shares |
| $20.49 | $21.93 | $23.56 | $23.77 | $16.98 | $16.07 | $19.55 | $22.96 | $25.27 | $24.85 | $23.72 | Revenue / shareRev/sh |
| $-1.24 | $-1.08 | $1.53 | $-7.32 | $-7.57 | $1.32 | $2.39 | $2.91 | $3.11 | $2.35 | $2.20 | EPS (diluted)EPS |
| $3.10 | $2.56 | $2.55 | $2.68 | $1.32 | $2.46 | $1.46 | $3.26 | $3.25 | $3.34 | $3.09 | Owner earnings / shareOE/sh |
| $3.10 | $2.56 | $2.55 | $2.68 | $1.32 | $2.46 | $1.46 | $3.26 | $3.25 | $3.34 | $3.09 | Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh |
| $1.95 | $2.00 | $1.99 | $2.00 | $1.25 | $0.49 | $0.59 | $0.91 | $1.07 | $1.11 | $1.08 | Dividends / shareDiv/sh |
| $1.51 | $1.52 | $1.55 | $1.24 | $0.80 | $0.80 | $1.13 | $1.34 | $1.34 | $1.18 | $1.08 | Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh |
| $30.27 | $26.54 | $25.96 | $17.16 | $8.68 | $10.51 | $12.31 | $13.99 | $14.71 | $18.17 | $17.28 | Book value / shareBVPS |
Per-share growththe realized rate an owner's share compounded
| 9-yr | 5-yr | |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue / share | +2.2%/yr | +7.9%/yr |
| Owner earnings / share | +0.8%/yr | +20.5%/yr |
| Dividends / share | −6.0%/yr | −2.2%/yr |
| Capital spending / share | −2.7%/yr | +8.0%/yr |
| Book value / share | −5.5%/yr | +15.9%/yr |
The year, in the company's words
the filing →Verbatim from the 10-K's management discussion. Each sentence is shown only because its subject, direction, and stated figures check out against the filed numbers on this page. The words are the company's; the arithmetic is the record's.
- Production Systems+11.6%
“Production Systems revenue of $13.3 billion increased 12% year on year reflecting five months of activity from the acquired ChampionX production chemicals and artificial lift businesses, which contributed $1.45 billion of revenue.”
✓ figure matches the filed record - Well Construction-11.2%
“Well Construction revenue of $11.9 billion decreased 11% year on year driven by a broad reduction in drilling activity both internationally, mainly in Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and offshore Africa, and in North America.”
✓ figure matches the filed record - Reservoir Performance-5.0%
“Reservoir Performance revenue of $6.8 billion decreased 5% year on year primarily due to a slowdown in evaluation and stimulation activity in the international markets. 17 Reservoir Performance pretax operating margin of 18% contracted 191 bps year on year due to the lower evaluation and stimulation activity.”
✓ figure matches the filed record
The record, charted
FY2016–2025Each measure over its full record; the current point and the worst year marked.
ROIC
11%low FY2018
Net debt ÷ owner earnings
1.8×peak FY2020
Owner earnings vs. net income
Owner earningsNet incomeThe accountant's number, and the cash an owner can take; the gap is the tell.
$4.8Bowner earningsvs.$3.4Bnet incomelow FY2020
Where the cash went
ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetainedBeyond op. cashEach year's outlays against its operating cash: the mix, and how it drifts. The hatched cap is spending beyond that year's operating cash — financed from the balance sheet or borrowing, not operations.
FY2016FY2025
Net income is the accountant's number; owner earnings is the cash an owner could take out. The walk between them, off the cash-flow statement, and whether the gap is widening or holding.
In fiscal 2025 the business turned $3.4B of profit into $4.8B of owner earnings: more cash than the profit line showed, after the non-cash charges and the capital it put back in.
| FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | FY2021 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reported net income | $3.4B | $4.5B | $4.2B | $3.4B | $1.9B |
| Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back | +$2.6B | +$2.5B | +$2.3B | +$2.1B | +$2.1B |
| Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost | +$332M | +$316M | +$293M | +$313M | +$324M |
| Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items | +$140M | −$694M | −$171M | −$2.2B | +$326M |
| Cash from operations | $6.5B | $6.6B | $6.6B | $3.7B | $4.7B |
| Capital expenditurecash put back in to keep running and to grow | −$1.7B | −$1.9B | −$1.9B | −$1.6B | −$1.1B |
| Owner earnings | $4.8B | $4.7B | $4.7B | $2.1B | $3.5B |
| Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue | 13% | 13% | 14% | 7% | 15% |
Owner earnings is the cash an owner could pull out without starving the business: operating cash less the capital it must spend to hold its position . The cash-flow statement also adds stock comp back as non-cash, but it is a real cost paid in shares; counted as the expense it is (less $332M), owner earnings is nearer $4.5B.
Maintenance capex is estimated as depreciation where a growing business invests above it; free cash flow is the figure the scorecard's free-cash margin reads.
Quality & stewardship
Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.
Owner’s Scorecard
FY2025 10-K · source on SEC EDGAR →
Will it survive?
- Can it pay its interest? 11.7×ComfortableOperating income $6.5B ÷ interest expense $558M
What this means
Operating profit covers interest with the kind of margin Graham wanted for a defensive holding. Necessary, not sufficient, it says solvent, not cheap.
- How heavy is the debt, net of cash? $7.4B · 1.1× operating profitModest net debtCash $3.1B + ST investments $1.2B − debt $11.7B
What this means
Netting $4.3B of cash and short-term investments against $11.7B of debt leaves $7.4B owed, about 1.1× a year's operating profit (1.8× on the gross debt, before the cash). Net debt is the leverage figure that matters: the cash is already set against the debt. Strategic or illiquid investments aren't counted here.
- Long (60+ days)DSO 89 + DIO 220 − DPO 213 days
What this means
Days cash is tied up between paying suppliers and collecting from customers. Lower is better; a long cycle means growth itself eats cash.
Is it a good business?
- Solid through the cycle6-yr median, range 7%–17%; 15% latest = NOPAT $5.2B ÷ invested capital $34.7BIndustry peers: median 7%
What this means
The rate the business earns on the money tied up in it, Buffett's north star, because over time a stock tracks the ROIC beneath it. Above ~15% sustained hints at a moat; a return below the cost of capital (~8%) erodes value as a business grows rather than building it — the test Buffett weighs most. The headline is the median of the last 6 years (it ran 15% most recently), so one peak or trough year doesn't set the verdict. Asset-light businesses (R&D expensed, little capital) read artificially high, pair this with Owner Earnings.
- Solid through the cycle10-yr median margin, range 7%–15%; latest $4.8B = operating cash $6.5B − maintenance capex $1.7BIndustry peers: median 7%
What this means
What an owner could take out without starving the business: operating cash less the maintenance capital it must spend to hold its position — Buffett's owner earnings. That's 13% of revenue this year, a 12% median across 10 years. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $332M of SBC) leaves $4.5B.
- Cash-backedCash from ops $6.5B ÷ net income $3.4B
What this means
How much of reported profit showed up as operating cash. Above 1× is reassuring; well below suggests earnings lean on accruals. One year is noisy, growth and working-capital swings distort it, and this is operating cash, not free cash. Watch the multi-year trend.
How is the cash used?
- Reinvests most of itDividends + buybacks $1.6B ÷ Owner Earnings $4.8B
What this means
Of $4.8B Owner Earnings, $1.6B (33%) went back to shareholders, $1.6B dividends, $0 buybacks. Returning most of it is the mark of a mature business with little left to reinvest at a high return; reinvesting most could mean a long runway, or empire-building. The split doesn't say which; the return earned on it (see ROIC) does.
- Investing or harvesting? 0.64×HarvestingCapex $1.7B ÷ depreciation $2.6B
What this means
Descriptive, not a grade. Above ~1× means investing faster than assets wear out (growth, or, sustained for years, today's earnings carrying less depreciation than tomorrow's will). Below means spending less than it's wearing out (efficiency, or a melting asset base). The ratio won't tell you which; the filings will.
Graham’s defensive tests · 2 of 5 met
Graham’s numerical criteria for the defensive investor (The Intelligent Investor, ch. 14), run on the filings. A floor of safety, not a buy signal; many fine modern businesses fail his strictest liquidity rules by design.
- Adequate size PassRevenue ≥ $2B · $35.7B
What this means
Big enough to weather a storm. Graham's 1972 floor was ~$100M of sales (≈ $700M today); we use a $2B revenue line as a conservative modern stand-in.
- Strong liquidity MissCurrent ratio ≥ 2× · 1.33×
What this means
Current assets at least twice current liabilities, near-term bills covered without touching the business. Strict by design: many cash-rich modern firms run leaner and miss it, holding their cushion in longer-dated securities.
- Conservative debt MissDebt ≤ working capital · $11.7B vs $4.8B WC
What this means
Graham's rule that borrowings not exceed net current assets. Capital-heavy and buyback-heavy firms routinely fail it, read it next to interest coverage, not alone.
- Earnings stability MissA profit every year (10-yr record) · 4 loss years
What this means
Graham wanted earnings in each of the past ten years, the stability a defensive owner leans on.
- Dividend record PassUninterrupted dividends · paid every year (10)
What this means
An unbroken dividend was Graham's mark of durability. He wanted twenty years; the filings show about ten, and a single suspension breaks the streak. Non-payers, many fine modern compounders, fall outside his defensive net by design.
- Earnings growth —Earnings +33% over the record · —
What this means
Earnings were negative early in the record, a growth rate isn't meaningful.
- Moderate price —P/E ≤ 15 and P/E × P/B ≤ 22.5 · decided by the price
What this means
Graham's valuation gate, the wall he kept between a sound business and a sound investment. Three-year average earnings are $2.68/share (latest year $2.26), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $17.46/share. Enter a price in “What the price implies” just below for the P/E, P/B, and whether it clears. But this is the rule Buffett outgrew: there's no hard P/E law, and a wonderful business can deserve a far richer multiple if the thesis holds, treat it as the bargain-hunter's floor, not a verdict on the price.
Durability & moat, 2016–2025
Whether the record’s returns held, and what the capital reinvested earned.
- Profitable years 6 of 10
What this means
Lost money in 4 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.
- Return on capital ≥ 15% 2 of 10 yrs
What this means
A moat shows up as a high return on invested capital that holds year after year, not one good vintage.
- Operating margin 12% → 17% (3-yr avg ends)
In the filing’s words The record and the words agree: the margin widened and the filing attributes the gain to its own pricing, not volume alone.
What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin widened — about 12% early to 17% lately, median 13% — pricing power intact or improving.
- Reinvestment, incremental ROIC returns capital
What this means
The capital base barely grew: this business returns cash through dividends and buybacks rather than reinvesting. Judge it on the cash returned, not on compounding.
- Owner earnings growth +2%/yr
What this means
Owner earnings grew about 2% a year over the record.
- Worst year 2020 · 10.2% op. margin
What this means
Stayed profitable even in its hardest year, the resilience that survives recessions.
- Share count +0.6%/yr
What this means
Roughly flat share count, little dilution, little buyback.
- Dividend record paid
What this means
Paid a dividend in 10 of the years on record.
Does AI threaten the moat?
Low contestabilityThe moat is physical, regulated or balance-sheet-funded, the kind AI cuts costs within but does not contest.
In its own filing Framed as a capability
The filing positions AI as something the company uses, not something it fears.
“Additionally, they unlock data and utilize artificial intelligence ("AI") and machine learning to reduce cycle time and improve efficiency of workflows to allow customers to make better, faster decisions to improve their project economics and reservoir performance.”
AI is unlikely to contest a moat that is physical, regulated or balance-sheet-funded; here it reads more as a cost tool than a threat, and the company is using it that way.
Read from the filing's own risk factors, paired with the industry's structure under its SIC code; the durability is read above, the price below.
All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.
Current Position
as of the latest quarter, Mar 31, 2026Can the business pay what it owes this year, off the freshest balance sheet: the quality of the assets, the debt actually coming due, and what a low ratio means here.
Current assets$19.3B
- Cash & short-term investments$3.7B
- Receivables$9.0B
- Inventory$5.3B
- Other current assets$1.3B
Current liabilities$14.4B
- Debt due within a year$2.0B
- Accounts payable$11.1B
- Other current liabilities$1.3B
Current ratio1.34×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×
Quick ratio0.98×stricter: inventory excluded
Cash ratio0.26×strictest: cash alone against what's due
Working capital$4.9Bthe cushion left after near-term bills
Debt due this year vs. cash$2.0B due · $3.7B cash
covered by cash on hand, no refinancing forced · both figures from the Mar 31, 2026 balance sheet
Revenue, latest quarter vs. a year ago+2.7%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing
Current ratio, recent quarters1.5× → 1.3×
Deeper floors
Tangible book value$4.4Bequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles
Net current asset value($7.8B)Graham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities
Debt incl. operating leases$11.6Bno operating-lease liability tagged this quarter, so debt alone
Deferred revenue$752Mcustomer cash collected before delivery; operating float
From the company's latest filing.
How the cash was used, 2016–2025
Over the record, the business generated $54.1B of operating cash; how management split it reads as a balanced allocator, splitting cash between the business, owners, and the balance sheet.
- Reinvested$17.5B · 32%
- Dividends$18.7B · 35%
- Retained (debt / cash)$17.9B · 33%
- Returned to owners$18.7B
51% of the owner earnings the business produced over the span, $18.7B as dividends and $0 as buybacks.
- Net change in share count11.6%
The diluted count rose from 1357M to 1515M: issuance (stock pay, deals) outran any buybacks, so owners were diluted on net.
- Dividend record$1.11/sh
Paid in 10 of the years on record, the per-share dividend shrinking about 6% a year. It was cut at least once along the way.
Buybacks are gross of stock issued to staff; the share-count line above is the net of that, the figure that decides whether owners gained. The average price paid blends a year of purchases (and any accelerated repurchase), so it is close, not exact. The record of where the cash went and on what terms.
Acquisitions & goodwill
from the balance sheet & the 10-year cash-flow recordGoodwill grows only when a company acquires and falls only when it concedes it overpaid. The size of that bet, the cash put into buying rather than building, and how much has already been written off.
Goodwill & intangibles$21.8B40% of all assets; the premium carried on the balance sheet for businesses acquired
Against book equity64%goodwill is this share of book equity; the rest is the company’s own retained and paid-in capital
Cash spent acquiring$4.5Bover 10 years buying other businesses, against $17.5B of capital spent building
$9.0B written down across 2 years (2019, 2025): goodwill the company has already conceded it overpaid for, charged against earnings. A write-down costs no cash (the cash went out when the deal was signed), but it is management marking its own past judgment to market.
Goodwill, acquired intangibles and equity from the latest balance sheet; acquisition spend and write-downs summed across the 10-year record, from the company's own filings.
Management, ownership & pay
read the proxy →From the proxy: how much of the business the people running it own, and how they are paid, beside what the business earned for its owners in the same years.
| Fiscal year | Chief executive | Pay, as filed | “Actually paid” | Owner earnings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Mr. Le Peuch | $16.8M | $32.4M | $3.5B |
| 2022 | Mr. Le Peuch | $15.7M | $39.5M | $2.1B |
| 2023 | Mr. Le Peuch | $18.2M | $26.2M | $4.7B |
| 2024 | Mr. Le Peuch | $17.3M | $2.8M | $4.7B |
| 2025 | Mr. Le Peuch | $17.3M | $17.5M | $4.8B |
Both pay figures are the company’s own, from the pay-versus-performance table its proxy statement files. “As filed” is the Summary Compensation Table total: salary, bonus, and equity awards at their value on the day of grant. “Actually paid” is the SEC’s prescribed recalculation, which re-marks those equity awards to what they became as they vested; it can swing far above or below the filed figure in either direction, and negative years occur. Owner earnings are the whole business's, from the record above, for the same fiscal years.
- Insider ownership1%
The stake all directors and executive officers hold together, per the 2026 proxy: skin in the game, the first thing Munger reads.
- CEO pay ratio123:1
What the chief earns for every dollar the median employee makes, per the 2026 proxy. A high ratio alone settles nothing; some businesses are genuinely top-heavy in scarce skill. A runaway figure is where Buffett starts asking whether the board is doing its job.
- Stock-based compensation$332M
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 1% of revenue, equal to 5% of operating profit. Buffett's oldest accounting fight: this is compensation, compensation is an expense, real whether or not the headline earnings admit it. One trap: the cash-flow statement adds SBC back, so the operating cash, and the owner earnings drawn from it, are flattered by exactly this amount; counted as the cost it is, what an owner keeps is lower.
Inverting the record
Invert: instead of why SLB Limited is a good business, the question is what would make owning it a mistake, and whether those marks are in the record. Disconfirming tests across 2016–2025.
1 of the 5 tests turned up something to look into; the other 4 came back clean.
- Look hereDid the share count rise anyway?11.6%
Diluted shares grew 11.6% over 2016–2025. Owners were diluted on net; each share owns less of the business than it did. Read the buyback line beside this one, not on its own.
And these came back clean
- Is it less profitable than it was?
- Did debt outgrow the business?
- Did receivables and inventory outpace sales?
- Are "one-time" charges a yearly habit?
Each test is read from the filings and is noisy alone; a flag can mark a cyclical trough or a year of heavy investment as easily as a problem. The filing says which.
What an owner would ask, FY2025
read the 10-K →- Which reported numbers are a judgment call?Management names Revenue recognition, Pension & retirement, Income taxes, Credit & receivables as critical estimates
each rests partly on management's judgment; the filing's note sets out the assumptionsverify →
The questions the record and the charts do not answer on their own; each carries the figure and the place to look.
Peers, Oilfield Services & Equipment
The same industry, side by side on owner economics. Each figure is a through-cycle median, so a peak or trough year can’t distort it; the group median at the foot is the line to read each against.
| Company | Revenue | Gross margin | Op. margin | ROIC | Owner earn. margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SLBSLB Limited | $35.7B | 77% | 13.1% | 13% | 12% |
| EOGEOG Resources Inc. | $22.6B | — | 27.0% | 15% | 25% |
| HALHalliburton Company | $22.2B | 81% | 10.2% | 12% | 7% |
| OXYOccidental Petroleum Corporation | $21.6B | 86% | 17.9% | 7% | 21% |
| DVNDevon Energy Corporation | $16.8B | 53% | 20.7% | 12% | 20% |
| EXEExpand Energy Corporation | $12.1B | — | -0.9% | -0% | 5% |
| LBRTLiberty Energy | $4.0B | 22% | 7.1% | 2% | 4% |
| OIIOceaneering International | $2.6B | 12% | 2.6% | 5% | 4% |
| Group median | — | 65% | 11.7% | 9% | 10% |
The price
What a price has to assume.
What the price implies
reverse-DCFType today's close and see the owner-earnings growth you'd have to believe to justify it, beside what SLB Limited has delivered.
$
Through the cycle, SLB Limited earns about $4.4B on its 12.3% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 13.4% margin runs in line with that. Normalize, below, values the price on that through-cycle figure rather than the latest year.
Base
—
The assumptions
9.0% = the 4.55% 10-year Treasury (Jul 15, 2026) + 4.45 points of equity premium. The rate you require is yours to set.
Enter a price above to run it.
A dated snapshot of the price you typed, the assumptions you set, and what the page showed for them. A snapshot is never edited after it is saved. Your notebook is yours alone — the commitment states what is stored and what we will never do.
Implied by the price—
Owner-earnings growth · ’21→’25+14%/yr
Owner-earnings growth · ’16→’25+2%/yr
Owner-earnings growth · ’16→’25+2%/yr
Owner-earnings yield—
What a growth belief costs, in multiples
The growth each return requires, at your price
P/E (3-yr earnings ’23–’25)—
P/B—
Graham’s price gate—
Graham capped the multiple at 15×; Buffett and Munger let that rule go: a wonderful business can deserve 50× if the thesis holds. The gate marks the bargain-hunter's floor.
Against a high-grade bond: Graham’s yardstick bond yield%
Prefilled with the 10-year Treasury (4.55%, as of Jul 15, 2026). Edit it for today’s exact figure, or a AAA corporate yield.
Graham measured a stock against the bond you could own instead, the heart of his margin of safety. Enter a price above to weigh the owner-earnings yield against this bond.
Owner-earnings yield—
High-grade bond yield—
Margin over the bond—
Owner earnings $4.7B on 1495M shares outstanding, per the 10-Q cover, as of 2026-03-31; net debt $7.9B. The base is the latest year by default; Normalize values it on the through-cycle median owner-earnings margin (to avoid paying on a peak year). Net of stock comp treats option pay as the expense it is. The dials set the multiple a growth belief justifies; the price, and every dollar on this page, is yours.
Cite: Owner Scorecard, "SLB Limited (SLB), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/SLB, data as of 2026-07-09.
Manual order: ← SLAB its page in the Manual SLDB →
Industry order: ← SEI the Oilfield Services & Equipment chapter STAK →