NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Whiting Petroleum are sinking, sharply down 10.61% to $27.96 in late morning trading Monday, as oil slumps to near six year low levels, continuing its months-long decline following a negative oil outlook by analysts at Goldman Sachs this morning. The firm slashed its short-term price forecasts, and major producers still showed no signs of curbing production output, according to Reuters. Goldman Sachs lowered its three-month forecasts for Brent to $42 a barrel from $80 a barrel. The firm cut its estimates for the U.S. West Texas Intermediate contract to $41 a barrel from $70 a barrel. 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. Goldman also lowered its 2015 Brent forecast to $50.40 a barrel from $83.75 a barrel, and U.S. crude to $47.15 a barrel from $73.75 a barrel. WTI crude for February delivery is down 3.72% to $46.56 as of 11:26 a.m. today. Denver, CO-based Whiting is an independent oil and gas company engaged in acquisition, development, exploitation, production and exploration in the U.S. Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates WHITING PETROLEUM CORP as a Hold with a ratings score of C. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation: "We rate WHITING PETROLEUM CORP (WLL) 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, reasonable valuation levels and expanding profit margins. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including deteriorating net income, disappointing return on equity and weak operating cash flow." Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows: The revenue growth came in higher than the industry average of 6.6%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues rose by 13.9%. 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 0.65, and is less than that of the industry average, implying that there has been a relatively successful effort in the management of debt levels. Despite the fact that WLL's debt-to-equity ratio is low, the quick ratio, which is currently 0.58, displays a potential problem in covering short-term cash needs. The company, on the basis of change in net income from the same quarter one year ago, has significantly underperformed against the S&P 500 and did not exceed that of the Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels industry. The net income has decreased by 22.6% when compared to the same quarter one year ago, dropping from $204.10 million to $157.98 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, WHITING PETROLEUM CORP'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: WLL 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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