8 Oil and Gas Stocks Analysts Want You to Buy

Energy

Published: March 14, 2015 9:05 am

The only way to describe this past week for energy stocks would be to say that it was atrocious. West Texas Intermediate crude dipped to around $45 on Friday after a negative producer price index report and after more chatter that the United States could be on the path to running out of places to store oil. Still, analysts on Wall Street have issued more reports calling out their favorite oil stocks to buy.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst reports each morning of the week in an effort to find new investment and trading ideas for its readers. With oil stocks having been so battered, the focus right now is on which oil and gas stocks analysts are telling their customers to buy now.

Keep in mind that not all analyst calls work out. In fact, some of them are met by the exact opposite move of what they expected. It happens. It was also a very rough week for the analysts and investors who drew their line in the sand and made big commitments.

Almost all energy names we tracked this past week saw prices head south, from oil majors to master limited partnership (MLPs) to exploration and production (E&P), and on and on. Taking that into consideration, analysts do not always adjust their official price targets lower just because the share/unit prices dropped over a week.

ALSO READ: Exxon or Chevron: Which Has Better Odds for Hitting Earnings Targets?

Another consideration is that some of these upside targets almost seem too good to be true when you consider how low oil prices have gone. The following were eight big oil and gas upgrades or calls to buy from Wall Street this past week.

Antero Resources

Credit Suisse reinstated Antero Resources Corp. (NYSE: AR) shares at Outperform on Tuesday, but what really stood out was the $53 price target. This implied upside of over 45% from the $36 price late on Tuesday. This is a $9.3 billion market cap in E&P. Shares were down 3% at $35.25 in mid-Friday trading, implying upside of just over 50% at the end of the week — if the call turns out to be accurate.

Antero’s 52-week trading range is $33.25 to $68.43, and the consensus price target is under $48. The consensus estimates show Antero growing in 2015 and in 2016. Analysts see $0.64 in earnings per share (EPS) in 2015 and $1.28 EPS in 2016, on revenue growth of 18% for 2015 and 32% for 2016. Still, those estimates have come down sharply over the past 90 days.

Bonanza Creek Energy

On Tuesday, Credit Suisse started Bonanza Creek Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: BCEI) at Outperform with a $35 price target. The independent E&P outfit of onshore oil was touted by Credit Suisse as being a low-leverage and low asset cost top pick in E&P. Before getting your pom-poms out, keep in mind that this stock was down a sharp 8% at $23.90 in mid-Friday trading.

It also has a 52-week range of $16.36 to $62.94, and its market cap was just under $1.2 billion. For whatever this is worth, Bonanza Creek Energy was initiated in coverage with only a Market Perform rating and a $25.00 price target at Cowen on Friday.

ALSO READ: Do Short Sellers Think Oil Stocks Have Bottomed?

Exxon Mobil

Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) was given a big endorsement on Monday. Goldman Sachs started coverage with a Buy rating and a $97 price target. The call was based on an $85.63 prior close, but lower oil and a deflationary economic report was not kind. Exxon shares were under $83 at one point on Friday. On top of that, Exxon had seen a 10 consecutive trading day drop until a 20 cent gain on Thursday to $84.22. Goldman Sachs is unlikely to back off just because of a one-week price drop, but the timing of the call turned out to be off the mark here.

Goldman Sachs did not use this as a sector bullish call, because Chevron and ConocoPhillips were both started as Neutral. Exxon’s 52-week trading range is $82.68 to $104.76, and its consensus price target is $93.20.

Magnum Hunter Resources

Shares of Magnum Hunter Resources Corp. (NYSE: MHR) were raised to Buy from Neutral at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey on Thursday. What stood out in the analyst report was a doubling of the firm’s price target to $4. This represents some 66% upside, if the firm is correct, and it is only $0.11 above the consensus analyst target.

Magnum Hunter is a small cap stock, under $500 million in market cap, and its 52-week trading range is $1.60 to $9.10. The target move was based on upcoming liquidity-generating financial transactions and improving well returns. The analyst report also specified that it is looking for Magnum to announce at least one deal in the coming weeks that should generate at least $35 million.

Rice Energy

Sterne Agee on Thursday reiterated Rice Energy Inc. (NYSE: RICE) as a Buy. Of particular interest was the whopping $30 price target. The call was based on no earnings surprise after a pre-announcement, as well as the notion that the Utica operations validated the dry gas fairway and that MLP drop-down options have emerged.

Rice was trading at $17.96 before the call, and shares were at $18.75 afterward on Thursday. That implies upside of 60%, if Sterne Agee is right. The consensus price target is above $27.50. Shares have traded between $16.04 and $34.34 in the past year.

ALSO READ: 6 Oil and Gas Stocks Analysts Want You to Buy

Statoil

Monday, Statoil ASA (NYSE: STO) was raised to Buy from Neutral at UBS. Statoil’s prior close was $18.32, but the stock was closer to $17 by mid-week, and shares were under $16.50 mid-Friday. The consensus price target was just above $22.50 at the time of the call.

Analysts do not really pull their targets due to a one-week price adjustment, but this past week brought nearly a 10% haircut to the price of the American depositary shares (ADSs). Statoil’s 52-week trading range in New York is $15.76 to $31.95.

Whiting Petroleum

Whiting Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: WLL) comes with a big caveat — it just did not work out the way many investors were expecting this week. Whiting was raised to Buy from Neutral at Guggenheim on Monday on the heels of possible buyout reports. The price target was put at $40 in the call, versus $34.03 as the prior close.

Shares were down sharply on Friday on news that Whiting was more likely to pursue a sale of some assets rather than an outright sale of the company. This may negate any “upgrades” or have analysts changing their tune.

Whiting shares were down over 8% at $35.00 late on Friday, against a 52-week range of $24.13 to $92.92. Its consensus price target is just under $46.

Blueknight Energy Partners

This small cap MLP ($245 million) has only very limited analyst coverage so far. That is why we have featured it here, last on the list, rather than in its alphabetical place.

Oklahoma City-based Blueknight Energy Partners L.P. (NASDAQ: BKEP) was started as Outperform with a $10 price target at RBC Capital Markets on Friday. Its yield equivalent (distribution) is listed as more than 7%, and the price was $7.50 mid-Friday, after close to a 1% gain. Blueknight has a 52-week trading range of $5.48 to $9.50, and the units were at $7.75 a week earlier.

ALSO READ: 4 UBS Diversified Oil Services Stock Picks to Buy

After looking at most of the calls and the direction the markets were in this week, these analysts probably wish they could use the stock prices of Friday, March 13, rather than prices earlier in the week.