Shares of Schlumberger Ltd. SLB, +2.46% rallied 1.1% in premarket trading Friday, after the oil services company reported first-quarter profit and revenue that rose above expectations and announced a 40% increase in its dividend. Net income rose to $510 million, or 36 cents a share, from $299 million, or 21 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Excluding nonrecurring items, adjusted earnings per share of 34 cents topped the FactSet consensus of 33 cents. Revenue grew 14.1% to $5.96 billion, beating the FactSet consensus of $5.91 billion, as the company’s Digital & Integration, Reservoir Performance and Well Construction business exceeded expectations while Production Systems came up shy. Separately, the new quarterly dividend of 17.5 cents a share, up from 12.5 cents, will be payable July 14 to shareholders of record on June 1. Based on Thursday’s stock closing price of $40.65, the new annual dividend rate implies a dividend yield of 1.72%, compared with the yield for the SPDR Energy Select Sector ETF XLE, -2.45% of 3.22% and the implied yield for the S&P 500 SPX, -2.77% of 1.44%.
