NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Brazilian state-run energy company Petrobras fell 7.72% to $6.10 in morning trading Friday after the company said it plans to sell assets, trim investments, and to likely delay dividend payments in order to deal with credit issues tied to its ongoing and widespread corruption scandal. Petrobras' new investment plan for 2015 through 2019 will be "more selective" and will prioritize controlling debt levels, said Chief Executive Maria das Graças Foster during a presentation of the company's third-quarter earnings, according to Reuters. The company published its unaudited third-quarter results on Wednesday after a more than two-month delay but failed to include a dollar amount for a write-down tied to its ongoing and wide-reaching corruption scandal. Exclusive Report: Jim Cramer's Best Stocks for 2015 STOCKS TO BUY: TheStreet Quant Ratings has identified a handful of stocks that can potentially TRIPLE in the next 12 months. Learn more. Petrobras reported net profit of 3.09 billion reais, or $1.18 billion, down from 3.39 billion reais in the same quarter last year. Revenue totaled 88.37 billion reais in the quarter, up from 77.7 billion reais. EBITDA fell 10% year-over-year to 11.7 billion reais. "The company understands that it will be necessary to make adjustments at the financial statements to correct the values of fixed assets," said Petrobras, which added it would be "impracticable to correctly quantify these "improperly recognized values" related to the scandal "since the payments were made by external suppliers and cannot be traced back to the company's accounting records." Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates PETROBRAS-PETROLEO BRASILIER as a "hold" with a ratings score of C-. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation: "We rate PETROBRAS-PETROLEO BRASILIER (PBR.A) a HOLD. The primary factors that have impacted our rating are mixed - some indicating strength, some showing weaknesses, with little evidence to justify the expectation of either a positive or negative performance for this stock relative to most other stocks. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures and attractive valuation levels. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including deteriorating net income, disappointing return on equity and poor profit margins." Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows: The revenue growth came in higher than the industry average of 6.7%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly increased by 3.8%. This growth in revenue does not appear to have trickled down to the company's bottom line, displayed by a decline in earnings per share. The debt-to-equity ratio is somewhat low, currently at 0.84, and is less than that of the industry average, implying that there has been a relatively successful effort in the management of debt levels. Along with the favorable debt-to-equity ratio, the company maintains an adequate quick ratio of 1.30, which illustrates the ability to avoid short-term cash problems. PETROBRAS-PETROLEO BRASILIER's earnings per share declined by 21.7% in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. Stable earnings per share over the past year indicate the company has sound management over its earnings and share float. However, the consensus estimates suggest that there will be an upward trend in the coming year. During the past fiscal year, PETROBRAS-PETROLEO BRASILIER's EPS of $1.70 remained unchanged from the prior years' EPS of $1.70. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($2.63 versus $1.70). The company, on the basis of change in net income from the same quarter one year ago, has significantly underperformed when compared to that of the S&P 500 and the Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels industry. The net income has significantly decreased by 25.7% when compared to the same quarter one year ago, falling from $2,996.00 million to $2,225.00 million. The company's current return on equity has slightly decreased from the same quarter one year prior. This implies a minor weakness in the organization. In comparison to the other companies in the Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels industry and the overall market, PETROBRAS-PETROLEO BRASILIER's return on equity is significantly below that of the industry average and is below that of the S&P 500. You can view the full analysis from the report here: PBR.A Ratings Report STOCKS TO BUY: TheStreet Quant Ratings has identified a handful of stocks that can potentially TRIPLE in the next 12 months. Learn more.
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