Schlumberger Ltd. (NYSE:SLB)

The financial data reveals significant trends and developments over the examined periods. Return on Assets (ROA) indicates a recovery trajectory from a pronounced negative position in late 2020 to sustained positive returns in subsequent quarters. Specifically, ROA began with a substantial loss of -24.79% on December 31, 2020, improving to 9.12% by September 30, 2024, followed by a slight dip to 8.55% by March 31, 2025. This upward trend denotes an enhancement in asset efficiency over time.

Financial Leverage demonstrates a consistent decline from 3.71 in June 30, 2020, to a lower and more stable range around 2.3 to 2.5 throughout 2024 and early 2025. This trend suggests a deleveraging strategy or a reduction in reliance on debt, which may contribute to the improved profitability ratios observed.

Return on Equity (ROE) mirrors the pattern seen in ROA but with more pronounced fluctuations. Initially, ROE was deeply negative at -87.13% in late 2020, reflecting severe losses to shareholders' equity during that period. However, there is a marked recovery with ROE rising steadily to exceed 21% by the end of 2023 and maintaining this level through early 2025. This sustained high ROE indicates a strong capacity to generate shareholder value as financial performance stabilized.

Return on Assets (ROA)

Experienced a sharp decline in 2020 to negative values, indicating inefficiencies or losses. From 2021 onwards, a consistent increase was observed, peaking near 9% in 2024 before a minor reduction in early 2025.

Financial Leverage

Decreased steadily from above 3.7 in mid-2020 to approximately 2.3 by early 2024, implying reduced financial risk and possibly a lower debt burden.

Return on Equity (ROE)

Severely negative at the end of 2020, signaling significant equity losses, but subsequently improved markedly to maintain levels above 20% from late 2022 through early 2025, signifying enhanced profitability and equity value generation.

Overall, the data depicts a company recovering from substantial financial setbacks in 2020, with improvements in profitability metrics (ROA and ROE) supported by a reduction in financial leverage. The recovery path suggests improved operational efficiency and financial stability, positioning the organization for sustained profitability moving forward.

Net Profit Margin

The net profit margin demonstrates a significant recovery and stabilization trend from 2020 through 2025. Initially, there was a severe negative margin of -44.57% at the end of 2020, which improved markedly in subsequent quarters. By March 2021, the margin improved to -13.3% and turned positive by June 2021 at 4.72%, continuing an upward trajectory to peak levels above 12% in late 2023 and early 2024. From mid-2023 onwards, the margin stabilizes around 12-13%, with a slight but steady decline forecasted toward 11.62% by March 2025, indicating robust profitability with some pressure on margins in the longer term.

Asset Turnover

The asset turnover ratio shows consistent improvement starting from 0.56 in March 2021 and gradually rising through each quarter. This ratio increases steadily, reflecting enhanced efficiency in utilizing assets to generate sales. By the end of 2022, the ratio reaches 0.65, and this positive trend continues through 2023 and 2024, plateauing slightly around 0.7 to 0.74. The improvement in asset turnover suggests efforts toward better asset utilization are yielding results and likely contributing to profitability gains.

Financial Leverage

Financial leverage exhibits a declining trend over the period from 2020 to 2024, starting at 3.12 in March 2020 and increasing briefly to 3.71 in June 2020 before beginning a steady reduction. From December 2020 onwards, leverage decreases consistently from 3.52 to stabilize around the low 2.3 range during 2023 and 2024. Notably, there is a slight uptick forecasted by March 2025 at 2.51. Overall, this indicates a gradual reduction in reliance on debt financing, potentially reducing financial risk and improving balance sheet stability.

Return on Equity (ROE)

Return on equity rebounded significantly following a sharp negative figure of -87.13% in December 2020. Thereafter, ROE increased sharply to positive territory by mid-2021, reaching above 8% and then climbing steadily through late 2021 and beyond. By the first quarter of 2023, ROE exceeds 19% and continues rising to peak near 21-21.5% through 2024 and into early 2025. This sustained high ROE indicates effective capital utilization and strong profitability for shareholders. The data reflects substantial corporate recovery and improved operational performance sustained over several years.

Tax Burden

Tax burden ratios became available starting in mid-2021, consistently remaining around 0.8 to 0.82 across subsequent quarters. This stability suggests a relatively steady effective tax rate impacting the company's earnings.

Interest Burden

The interest burden ratio showed an increasing trend from 0.7 in mid-2021 to approximately 0.91-0.92 by early 2023 and maintained those levels through 2025. This indicates an improvement in the ability to cover interest expenses from operating income over time.

EBIT Margin

The EBIT margin experienced a significant recovery from negative values in 2020, rising from -45.62% in the third quarter to positive margins starting from 8.58% in early 2021. The metric steadily improved to a peak of about 17.6% by early 2023, after which it stabilized between 16% and 17%. This trend reflects enhanced operating profitability and margin management.

Asset Turnover

The asset turnover ratio showed a gradual upward trend, starting from 0.56 in the third quarter of 2020 and rising to approximately 0.74 by early 2025. This gradual increase indicates improved efficiency in using assets to generate revenue over the period analyzed.

Financial Leverage

Financial leverage declined from a high of 3.71 in the second quarter of 2020 to about 2.36-2.51 from late 2023 onward, denoting a reduction in reliance on debt financing relative to equity. The slight uptick observed at the end of the period to 2.51 suggests some variations but overall a more conservative capital structure compared to earlier periods.

Return on Equity (ROE)

ROE showed a marked improvement from deep negative figures in 2020 (around -87.13% in Q3) to positive and increasing returns from early 2021 onward. The ratio climbed steadily, reaching around 21% by late 2023 and maintained this level through 2025. This reflects significant recovery and sustained profitability from the shareholders' perspective.

Net Profit Margin

The net profit margin exhibited a significant negative value at the end of the first quarter of 2020, indicating considerable losses during that period. Starting from the end of the first quarter of 2021, the margin turned positive and displayed a consistent upward trajectory, reaching a peak around the first quarter of 2023. After this peak, the margin slightly declined but remained relatively stable, maintaining values generally above 11%, with a modest downward trend observed towards the first quarter of 2025. This pattern suggests a recovery from initial substantial losses followed by a phase of sustained profitability and some stabilization in margins.

Asset Turnover

Asset turnover showed a gradual increase beginning in the first quarter of 2021. This ratio started at 0.56 and increased in small increments over the quarters, eventually reaching approximately 0.74 by the first quarter of 2025. The steady increase indicates improving efficiency in the use of assets to generate sales over the period analyzed, suggesting better operational utilization or growth in revenue relative to assets.

Return on Assets (ROA)

ROA closely followed the trend of net profit margin, being deeply negative in early 2020, reflecting poor profitability relative to the asset base during that time. From early 2021 onwards, ROA steadily improved, transitioning into positive figures and continuing to rise, peaking near the first quarter of 2024. Subsequently, there was a slight decline by the first quarter of 2025, though ROA remained robust and notably positive. This indicates an improved ability to generate profits from assets, reinforcing the trend of financial recovery and operational efficiency enhancement over the observed period.

The financial data reveals a significant recovery and improvement trend over the observed periods. Initially, the EBIT margin and return on assets (ROA) figures reflect a challenging environment, with the EBIT margin showing a deep negative value of -45.62% followed by a gradual recovery to positive territory by the end of 2020. Thereafter, both EBIT margin and ROA exhibit consistent growth, stabilizing with EBIT margin values fluctuating around 16% to 17%, and ROA increasing steadily to a range close to 9% in the most recent periods.

The tax burden ratio has remained relatively stable since it begins reporting, fluctuating slightly around the 0.80 to 0.82 range across the quarters. This stability suggests consistent tax expense relative to pre-tax profits. The interest burden ratio shows a noticeable improvement over time, increasing from around 0.70 to approximately 0.92, indicative of a decreasing proportion of earnings consumed by interest expenses, which enhances overall profitability.

Asset turnover shows a gradual upward trend throughout the periods, moving from 0.51 to around 0.74, highlighting increasingly efficient use of assets to generate revenue. This rising operational efficiency complements the improvements observed in profitability metrics such as EBIT margin and ROA.

Tax Burden

Stable around 0.80 to 0.82, indicating consistent tax expense relative to earnings.

Interest Burden

Improved significantly from 0.70 to approximately 0.92, suggesting reduced interest expense impact on earnings.

EBIT Margin

Recovered from deeply negative values to a stable positive margin around 16-17%, demonstrating improved operational profitability.

Asset Turnover

Increased steadily from 0.51 to 0.74, reflecting enhanced efficiency in asset utilization.

Return on Assets (ROA)

Progressed from negative figures to near 9%, indicating growing effectiveness in generating profit from assets.

Overall, the data depicts a company that has overcome initial financial difficulties and has since demonstrated steady improvement in operational efficiency, profitability, and cost management, which collectively contribute to stronger returns and financial health.

The financial ratios exhibit notable trends over the analyzed periods. The Tax Burden ratio, measuring the proportion of earnings retained after taxes, shows stability around 0.8 to 0.82 from June 2020 onward, reflecting consistent tax efficiency or stable tax expense relative to pre-tax income.

The Interest Burden ratio demonstrates a clear improving trajectory, rising from approximately 0.7 in June 2020 to around 0.91 by mid-2023 and maintaining near that level through to early 2025. This trend indicates a reduction in interest expense impact relative to earnings before interest and taxes, suggesting improved interest coverage and potentially lower debt servicing costs or refinancing at more favorable terms.

Examining operational profitability, the EBIT Margin shows a significant recovery and growth. Beginning with substantial negative margins in early 2020 (notably -45.62% in September 2020), the margin turns positive by around mid-2021 and steadily increases, reaching a peak slightly above 17% in 2023 before stabilizing near 16%-17% through 2025. This improvement suggests a strong rebound in core operational performance, reflecting effective cost management or improved revenue generation.

The Net Profit Margin follows a parallel positive trend, moving from deeply negative levels in late 2020 (around -44.57%) to positive territory by mid-2021. It progressively strengthens, reaching approximately 12.9% in early 2023 and maintaining a level slightly above 11% through the subsequent years. This progression indicates enhanced overall profitability after accounting for all expenses, taxes, and interest, consistent with improved operational efficiency and financial management.

Overall, the data depicts a company recovering from significant losses in early 2020 to achieving stable and healthy profitability and operational margins in subsequent years. The steady improvement in Interest Burden and stable Tax Burden support this positive profitability trend, pointing to enhanced financial robustness and effective expense control.

Tax Burden

Stable ratio around 0.8 – 0.82 from mid-2020 onward, indicating consistent tax-related earnings retention.

Interest Burden

Improvement from 0.7 in mid-2020 to about 0.91 by mid-2023, remaining steady thereafter, reflecting reduced interest expenses impact.

EBIT Margin

Recovery from large negative margin (-45.62% in Sep 2020) to positive above 17% by 2023, then steady near 16%-17%, showing operational turnaround.

Net Profit Margin

Turnaround from -44.57% in Sep 2020 to about 12.9% in early 2023, holding above 11% subsequently, indicating improved overall profitability.