Jonathan Yates: Legendary investor George Soros has increased his holdings of Weatherford International (NYSEARCA:WFT), an oil and gas service and equipment provider, to go along with recent investments in YPF SA (NYSEARCA:YPF), an Argentine oil and gas company, as detailed in an article on www.emergingmoney.com.

These purchases in the oil and gas sector come as the exchanged traded fund for oil, United States Oil ETF (NYSEARCA:USO), is lower for the week, month and year.

Like USO, WFT is down for for the year, off by almost 40%.  The trend has not been its friend, either, as it is trading below its 20-day, 50-day and 200-day moving averages.

This despite sales growth (33.32%) and earnings growth (98.85%) rising impressively on a quarter-by-quarter basis.

Next year, the earnings per share growth rate is projected to rise by almost 80%.  For the next five years, it is estimated to increase by more than 50%.

Many other financials are equally attractive.  Over the next year, the price-to-earnings ratio is expected to fall to under 9.  At present, the price-to-sales ratio is barely 0.87.

In addition to George Soros, many others in the professional investor community are bullish on Swiss-based Weatherford International.

Institutions own over 70% of the stock, which is a very strong sign of support.  Now trading around $14, the mean analyst target price for Weatherford International over the next year is $21.31.

Written By Jonathan Yates From Emerging Money

Emerging Money provides insightful and timely information about the increasingly important world of Emerging Market investments.  CNBC Emerging Markets Contributor Tim Seymour leads the team of Emerging  Money to bring you cutting edge global news and analysis.

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