NE vs SDRL: How Noble Corporation plc and Seadrill Compare (2026)

Same yardstick, side by side (as of August 2026). Valuation lined up like this is most meaningful for two names in the same corner of the market, which these are. Figures are approximate; verify before investing.

Reading it: SDRL is the cheaper of the two on forward earnings, but cheaper is not the same as better. Pair the valuation with growth (how far the forward P/E sits below the trailing P/E) and risk (beta) before you decide.

The metrics above tell you which is the marginally better business. The bigger risk for most people is not picking the slightly worse stock, it is over-concentrating. NE and SDRL share themes, so owning both, or adding either to what you already hold, can quietly push a large share of your portfolio into one bet.

This is the part a generic comparison page cannot answer, because it depends on what you own. Connect your brokerage and Walnut shows your real, combined NE and SDRL exposure, flags overlap with your existing positions, and tells you if adding one would tip you past a concentration you are comfortable with, read-only by default, with your login staying at your broker. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

Noble Corporation plc is a London-based offshore drilling contractor that owns and operates a fleet of drillships, semisubmersibles, and jackup rigs, which it contracts to oil and gas companies to drill and complete wells in deepwater and shallow-water basins around the world. Its 2024 all-stock-and-cash acquisition of Diamond Offshore roughly doubled its exposure to high-specification floaters and gave it a deepwater fleet comparable in scale and technical capability to Transocean, with meaningful positions in the U.S. Gulf, South America (notably Brazil and Guyana), West Africa, and the North Sea. The business is fundamentally a leasing model: revenue comes from day rates on multi-month and multi-year contracts, and profitability swings with fleet utilization and the day rates producers are willing to pay.

Full NE guide

Seadrill owns and operates offshore drilling rigs and hires them out to exploration and production companies under multi-well or multi-year contracts. The fleet is concentrated in the high-specification end of the market: seventh-generation ultra-deepwater drillships plus harsh-environment semi-submersibles, working mainly in Brazil, the US Gulf, and West Africa, with Petrobras, ExxonMobil, and other majors as the counterparties. Seadrill does not own the oil it helps find. It sells rig days, so a contract states a dayrate (the fee per day the rig is under contract) and a duration, and revenue is essentially dayrate times contracted days times how much of that time the rig actually operates. Economic utilization ran around 94.6% in early 2026, which is the operational half of the equation. The company also manages rigs for third parties and has periodically bought and sold units rather than building new ones, since a newbuild drillship costs several hundred million dollars and takes years to deliver.

Full SDRL guide

Both fit overlapping themes, but they are not interchangeable. The useful comparison is which set of drivers and risks you want exposure to.

• NE drivers: Backlog and revenue visibility; Diamond Offshore scale and synergies.
• SDRL drivers: Backlog conversion and replacement; Ultra-deepwater dayrates.

A faster-growing, richer-valued name usually swings harder, so it suits a longer horizon and a higher tolerance for volatility; a steadier, more cash-generative business suits a more conservative or income-minded investor. The honest test is which set of risks you could hold through a drawdown: Offshore drilling is highly cyclical and capital-intensive, so Noble's earnings and stock are sensitive to oil prices and producers' offshore capital budgets. For SDRL, offshore drilling is one of the most cyclical businesses in energy, and customer capital budgets are set annually, so a soft oil strip can push a tender out by quarters.

Growth-minded investors who believe the theme has years to run tend to accept the richer multiple for more upside; value-minded investors lean toward the cheaper forward earnings and steadier profile. Pick NE if you believe its drivers more; SDRL if you believe its. Many investors hold both, but since they share themes, that is a concentrated bet, not diversification. Decide deliberately and check overlap. For the full detail, see the NE and SDRL guides.

NE. Noble reported Q1 2026 net income near $121 million (about $0.75 diluted EPS) on revenue of roughly $786 million, helped by cost cuts and gains on rig sales. Full-year 2026 guidance points to revenue of about $2.8 to $3.0 billion and adjusted EBITDA of roughly $940 million to $1.02 billion. The stock's trailing P/E in the mid-30s reflects both a re-rating and the lumpy, cyclical nature of drilling earnings.

SDRL. Seadrill screens on EV/EBITDA rather than earnings, because heavy depreciation on a drillship fleet keeps GAAP net income near or below zero even in quarters when cash generation improves. The company raised its full-year 2026 revenue and EBITDA guidance alongside the first-quarter report, citing early contract starts and operating discipline. Second-quarter 2026 results were scheduled for August 10, 2026, so the figures above reflect the first quarter and are the most recent reported at the time of writing.

Headline figures (approximate, July 2026): NE shows market cap ~$6.2B, revenue (2026 guidance) ~$2.8B to $3.0B, adjusted ebitda (2026 guidance) ~$940M to $1,020M, contract backlog ~$7.5B; SDRL shows revenue (q1 2026) ~$358 million, up from ~$335 million a year earlier, adjusted ebitda (q1 2026) ~$97 million, ~27% margin, net income (q1 2026) ~$7 million loss, contract backlog ~$3.1 billion.

NE and SDRL are related but distinct: same themes, different businesses and risks. Neither wins in the abstract; the right pick is whichever thesis you actually believe, sized so you are not over-concentrated in one theme. Walnut can show your combined NE and SDRL exposure against your real portfolio. It is not an investment adviser.