Key Highlights

● Second-quarter revenue was $2,134 million, down 2 per cent from a year earlier.

● Adjusted EBITDA reached $283 million, including about $40 million of tariff refunds.

● Operating cash flow was just $17 million, and free cash flow was negative $64 million.

● Energy Equipment orders of $474 million gave a book-to-bill ratio of only 74 per cent.

NOV Inc. (NYSE:NOV), the oilfield equipment and services group, published second-quarter 2026 results on 28 July 2026. Revenue was $2,134 million, up 4% on the first quarter but 2% below the $2,188 million of a year earlier. Net income attributable to the company was $112 million, or $0.31 per diluted share, compared with $0.29 a year before. Operating profit was $193 million, a 9.0% margin, while adjusted operating profit was $190 million. Adjusted EBITDA reached $283 million, a 13.3% margin and $31 million higher than a year earlier. The company stated that this figure includes about $40 million of tariff refund benefits, so the underlying improvement is smaller than the headline suggests. That distinction is a reading of the release, not an additional company claim.

Two segments, different trends

Energy Equipment, the larger division, recorded revenue of $1,218 million, up 1% year on year, operating profit of $177 million, a 14.5% margin, and adjusted EBITDA of $200 million, which includes about $14 million of tariff refunds. Orders were $474 million, a book-to-bill ratio of 74%, meaning new bookings ran below shipments in the period. Capital equipment backlog stood at $4.08 billion, $220 million lower than a year earlier. Energy Products and Services generated revenue of $974 million, down 5%, with operating profit of $85 million, a margin of 8.7%, and adjusted EBITDA of $144 million, a 14.8% margin that includes about $26 million of tariff refunds. The contrast shows a business whose order intake and shorter-cycle activity are moving in different directions, a point investors in the oilfield equipment sector often examine closely.

Cash flow and shareholder returns

Cash generation was notably weak. Operating cash flow was just $17 million in the quarter and negative $9 million over six months. After $81 million of capital expenditure, free cash flow was negative $64 million for the quarter and negative $155 million for the half year. The company also spent $13 million on acquisitions. Even so, NOV repurchased about 3.2 million shares for $63 million and paid $64 million in dividends, returning $127 million in total. The quarterly dividend comprised a base payment of $0.09 per share plus a supplemental $0.09 per share, according to the release. Returns that exceed free cash flow are being funded from the balance sheet, which is worth monitoring if cash conversion does not recover.

Shareholder Returns Are Outrunning Cash Flow

NOV's headline earnings growth leaned on tariff refund benefits across both of its segments, and the underlying trend looks softer once that is stripped out, with Energy Equipment's shrinking backlog and sub-100 per cent book-to-bill ratio pointing to orders running behind shipments. The company still returned $127 million to shareholders through buybacks and dividends despite negative free cash flow, funding the gap from the balance sheet, a pattern that bears watching if cash conversion does not recover in the third quarter guided for flat to 2 per cent revenue growth.