PTENPatterson-UTI Energy, Inc.
Is it safe?
Solid, nothing alarming: comfortable debt (AA), but big price swings.
Mixed, watch the balance sheet Altman Z-score, a bankruptcy-risk model from five balance-sheet ratios.
Insiders were net sellers (-$12.7M, 90 days to Oct 8, 2026), selling is often routine.
Rock-solid balance sheet, low leverage. A rule of thumb on leverage, not a credit rating.
Large price swings, high volatility. Worst drawdown -94% · now 14% below its 52-week high.
Unless marked, from SEC EDGAR, as of Dec 31, 2025.
Against the whole market›
Percentile against every name Ryufin tracks. Higher is better; the tick marks the middle of the market. Context, not one of the checks above.
Where this answer is blind. Altman sits structurally low for utilities and pipelines; Beneish runs high for fast growers, since sales growth alone lifts it; banks and REITs are excluded.
Can PTEN take a bad year?
Patterson-UTI Energy, Inc. carries $1.03B of net debt at 2.70× EBITDA: a load its earnings can carry.
Net debt · as at Q2 2026 · between two and four years of EBITDA, normal for a stable business
- Net debt / EBITDA
- 2.70×
Net debt / EBITDA
- Altman Z-score
- 1.59
Altman Z-score · distress zone, below 1.8
- Interest cover
- none
Interest cover · no operating profit to pay the interest bill from
Details›
- Total debtQ2 2026
- $1.23B
- Cash and short-term investments
- $201M
- Net debt
- $1.03B
- EBITDA, trailing twelve months
- $382M
- Operating profit, trailing twelve months
- −$50M
- Debt / equity
- 0.40×
- Total debt / EBITDA
- 3.23×
- Annualised volatilitytwo years of daily moves
- 55%
- Worst drawdown on file
- −94%
- Below its 52-week high
- 14%
Balance sheet from SEC filings; drawdown and volatility from end-of-day closes; Altman Z from the filed statements.