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Wall Street’s Best Digest Daily Alert

Fourteen analysts have increased their 2017 earnings forecasts for this energy company.

Fourteen analysts have increased their 2017 earnings forecasts for this energy company.

Cimarex Energy (XEC)
From Stock Pickers Digest

Cimarex Energy (XEC; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) produces and explores for natural gas and oil. Gas makes up 47% of the company’s output; the remaining 53% is oil.

Cimarex’s properties are mostly in the Wolfcamp shale area of Texas and New Mexico. The company also has production sites in Oklahoma’s Cana-Woodford shale region. In the three months ended December 31, 2016, Cimarex produced an average 165,500 barrels of oil equivalent per day. That’s down 2.6% from 170,000 a year earlier.

Despite the lower output, the company’s reduced costs and higher oil and gas prices improved its cash flow. That jumped 70.6% in the latest quarter, to $2.32 a share from $1.36.

Cimarex plans to spend as much as $1.2 billion on exploration and development this year. That’s up 56% from its 2016 spending of $735 million.

The company’s balance sheet is very strong. Its long-term debt of $1.5 billion is a low 13.4% of its $11.2 billion market cap. Cimarex currently holds cash of $652.9 million, or $6.87 a share.

Cimarex Energy is a buy.

Patrick McKeough, Stock Pickers Digest, www.tsinetwork.ca, 888-292-0296, May 2017