NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Laredo Petroleum Inc. are lower by 4.69% to $11.37 on heavy volume in mid-morning trading on Monday, as some stocks within the oil and energy sector decline along with the price of the commodity. Brent crude is falling by 2.48% to $61.03 per barrel, while crude oil (WTI) moved into the green and is up by 1.27% to $50.39 per barrel this morning, according to the CNBC.com index. Earlier today WTI was down to $49.30 per barrel. Concerns regarding the continuation of the global oil supply, especially in the U.S. are pushing oil prices down today. In February oil saw some sessions in the green, ending a seven month losing streak. Brent gained 18% in February. Exclusive Report: Jim Cramer's Best Stocks for 2015 Analysts are cautioning that there are still very few signs that oil production will decline and added that prices could still fall before making a recovery, the Wall Street Journal reports. U.S. oil production grew by 1.2 million barrels per day in 2014, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration on Friday. U.S crude oil inventories are at their highest level in close to 80 years. Analysts are expecting an uptick in U.S. stockpiles in the coming weeks with refineries processing less crude while performing their seasonal maintenance, the Journal added. A strike at some U.S. refineries could also be bringing oil down today. Many of the affected refineries are still in operation, a shutdown could result in lower demand for crude oil in the U.S., the Journal noted. Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates LAREDO PETROLEUM INC as a Hold with a ratings score of C-. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation: "We rate LAREDO PETROLEUM INC (LPI) 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, compelling growth in net income and good cash flow from operations. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including a generally disappointing performance in the stock itself and generally higher debt management risk." Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows: The revenue growth greatly exceeded the industry average of 18.7%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues rose by 17.2%. Growth in the company's revenue appears to have helped boost the earnings per share. The net income growth from the same quarter one year ago has significantly exceeded that of the S&P 500 and the Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels industry. The net income increased by 565.0% when compared to the same quarter one year prior, rising from $12.54 million to $83.41 million. The gross profit margin for LAREDO PETROLEUM INC is currently very high, coming in at 80.22%. Regardless of LPI's high profit margin, it has managed to decrease from the same period last year. Despite the mixed results of the gross profit margin, LPI's net profit margin of 41.65% significantly outperformed against the industry. LPI's stock share price has done very poorly compared to where it was a year ago: Despite any rallies, the net result is that it is down by 55.31%, which is also worse that the performance of the S&P 500 Index. Investors have so far failed to pay much attention to the earnings improvements the company has managed to achieve over the last quarter. Although its share price is down sharply from a year ago, do not assume that it can now be tagged as cheap and attractive. The reality is that, based on its current price in relation to its earnings, LPI is still more expensive than most of the other companies in its industry. The debt-to-equity ratio of 1.16 is relatively high when compared with the industry average, suggesting a need for better debt level management. To add to this, LPI has a quick ratio of 0.50, this demonstrates the lack of ability of the company to cover short-term liquidity needs. You can view the full analysis from the report here: LPI Ratings Report
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