How Is Wall Street Currently Rating Energy Companies?
Recent upgrades
In this series, we’ll analyze Wall Street analysts’ recommendations for top energy companies. In this part, we’ll study analysts’ most recent ratings changes for the five largest upstream companies by enterprise value.
As shown in the above table, Devon Energy (DVN) was upgraded to “hold” from “underweight” by EVA Dimensions on February 26, 2016. EVA Dimensions did not mention a target price for DVN.
Recent downgrades
EOG Resources (EOG) was downgraded to a “hold” from a “buy” by Wunderlich Securities on February 29, 2016. Wunderlich Securities also lowered EOG’s target price from $80 to $64, which is ~1% lower than EOG’s February 29 closing price of $64.74. Wunderlich expects this target price to be achieved in the next 12 months.
Recent analyst recommendations
For ConocoPhillips (COP), the most recent recommendation of “outperform” comes from Bernstein. The recommendation was issued on February 29. Bernstein assigned COP the target price of $41, ~208% higher than COP’s February 29 closing price of $19.68.
For Occidental Petroleum (OXY), the most recent recommendation of “hold” comes from Jefferies, and it was issued on February 24, 2016. Jefferies assigned OXY a target price of $68.97, close to the company’s February 29 closing price of $68.82.
For Anadarko Petroleum (APC), the most recent recommendation of “outperform” comes from Bernstein. It was issued on February 29. Bernstein assigned APC the target price of $72, ~90% higher than APC’s February 29 closing price of $37.95.
All of the above price targets are for a 12-month period from the date of recommendation.
In the next part, we’ll delve further into the recommendations for each of these companies.
Browse this series on Market Realist: