Best Oil Stocks To Watch Right Now

tags:APA,WLL,COP,RRC,MMP,ECA,

June 8, 2018: Markets opened lower Friday, likely due to traders’ anxiety over what would happen at the G-7 meeting in Canada. Once the president said the group ought to let Russia back in, everyone breathed a sigh of relief and equity prices recovered. Energy sector stocks have been the day’s biggest drag and the utilities was the only other sector trading in the red for the day. Consumer staples was the leading gainer.

WTI crude oil for July delivery closed at $65.74 a barrel, down about 1.3% for the day to close the week down about 0.1%. The U.S. rig count added a couple of rigs this week and the possibility of more production from Russia and Saudi Arabia have weighed on prices. August gold dropped less than 0.1% on the day to settle at $1,302.70. Equities were headed for a modestly higher close about 10 minutes before the bell as the Dow traded up 0.0.29% for the day, the S&P 500 traded up 0.30%, and the Nasdaq Composite traded up 0.21%.

Bitcoin futures (XBTM8) for June delivery traded at $7,655, down about 0.7% on the CBOE after opening at $7,670 this morning. The trading range today was $7,540 to $7,705.

Best Oil Stocks To Watch Right Now: Apache Corporation(APA)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By VantagePoint]

  Apache Corporation (NYSE: APA) has been ripping since March 2nd, when it hit a two-year low of $33.60. Since then it's up 25 percent. 

  The three-month chart below shows that this trend is likely to continue. The blue line is generated via VantagePoint's intermarket analysis, and represents a prediction of what APA's moving average will be in three days. The black line is a simple 10-day moving average. Note the bullish crossover that occurred in early March. That was a signal that the stock was entering an uptrend. 

• [By Paul Ausick]

  Apache Corp. (NYSE: APA) dropped about 7.3% Thursday to post a new 52-week low of $34.50. Shares closed at $37.20 on Wednesday and the stock’s 52-week high is $55.23. Volume was over 11 million, about three times the daily average of around 3.9 million. The company reported quarterly results this morning, but investors were not impressed.

• [By Lee Jackson]

  Apache Corporation (NYSE: APA) is raised to Buy from Hold at Argus with a $56 price target. That competes with the Wall Street consensus target of $46.19. The 52-week trading range for the company is $33.60 to $51.21. The stock closed Friday at $42.24.

Best Oil Stocks To Watch Right Now: Whiting Petroleum Corporation(WLL)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Logan Wallace]

  Whiting Petroleum Corp (NYSE:WLL) gapped up before the market opened on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $53.25, but opened at $51.53. Whiting Petroleum shares last traded at $52.01, with a volume of 68181 shares.

• [By Stephan Byrd]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Whiting Petroleum (WLL)

  For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  Whiting Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: WLL) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight with a $71 target price (versus a $50.48 close) at Morgan Stanley.

  Tuesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included DocuSign, Embraer, Goodyear, Macy’s, Micron Technologies, Raytheon, Smartsheet and more.

• [By Stephan Byrd]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Whiting Petroleum (WLL)

  For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com

Best Oil Stocks To Watch Right Now: ConocoPhillips(COP)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By ]

  Lang looked at a daily chart of Anadarko (APC) and Conoco Phillips (COP) , noting that Anadarko has been making higher highs and lows on strong volume, with a bullish MACD momentum indicator. Conoco has made a "W" shaped bottom with a bullish Chaikin money flow, signaling institutional buying. Lang and Cramer were fans of both names.

• [By Matthew DiLallo]

  ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) has worked hard to distinguish itself from other oil companies over the past few years by shifting its focus from growing production to increasing shareholder value. That led it on a path to shed high-cost assets so that it could slim down to a company that could thrive at lower oil prices.

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  Whittier Trust Co. grew its holdings in ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) by 15.8% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 11,978 shares of the energy producer’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,635 shares during the period. Whittier Trust Co.’s holdings in ConocoPhillips were worth $710,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

• [By Matthew DiLallo]

  ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) has been one of the hottest oil stocks in the sector over the past year. Shares of the U.S. oil giant are up an eye-popping 57% over that time frame, adding $26 billion to its market cap. That's a significantly higher return than most other oil stocks, which are only up by a mid-teens rate on average.

Best Oil Stocks To Watch Right Now: Range Resources Corporation(RRC)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Tyler Crowe, Matthew DiLallo, and Reuben Gregg Brewer]

  So we asked three of our investing contributors to each highlight a company they think has a compelling investment case right now in the oil and gas industry. Here's why they selected Devon Energy (NYSE:DVN), Range Resources (NYSE:RRC), and ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM).

• [By Shane Hupp]

  RRCoin (CURRENCY:RRC) traded down 5% against the dollar during the twenty-four hour period ending at 14:00 PM ET on September 22nd. One RRCoin token can now be purchased for approximately $0.0093 or 0.00000139 BTC on cryptocurrency exchanges. RRCoin has a total market cap of $0.00 and approximately $463,836.00 worth of RRCoin was traded on exchanges in the last 24 hours. In the last seven days, RRCoin has traded 1.4% higher against the dollar.

• [By Shane Hupp]

  Toronto Dominion Bank increased its holdings in Range Resources Corp. (NYSE:RRC) by 25.2% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 123,421 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock after purchasing an additional 24,839 shares during the period. Toronto Dominion Bank’s holdings in Range Resources were worth $1,794,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

• [By Joseph Griffin]

  Media headlines about Range Resources (NYSE:RRC) have been trending somewhat positive on Saturday, Accern Sentiment Analysis reports. The research group identifies positive and negative press coverage by monitoring more than twenty million news and blog sources in real-time. Accern ranks coverage of public companies on a scale of -1 to 1, with scores nearest to one being the most favorable. Range Resources earned a daily sentiment score of 0.07 on Accern’s scale. Accern also gave media headlines about the oil and gas exploration company an impact score of 46.3371462950661 out of 100, indicating that recent press coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an effect on the stock’s share price in the near future.

• [By Stephan Byrd]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Range Resources (RRC)

  For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com

Best Oil Stocks To Watch Right Now: Magellan Midstream Partners L.P.(MMP)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Magellan Midstream Partners (MMP)

  For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com

• [By Matthew DiLallo]

  This process starts with gathering pipelines, which transports a well's production to central processing locations that separate oil, natural gas, natural gas liquids (NGLs), and water. The oil then moves by truck, pipeline, or tanker to storage facilities while it waits to go through a refinery or petrochemical complex and get turned into fuel, chemicals, or another oil-based product. While oil companies tend to own some of these midstream assets, especially gathering lines and processing facilities, third parties hold a significant portion of the energy infrastructure in North America. These companies often charge fees for the logistical services provided to oil companies. Master limited partnerships (MLPs) are a noteworthy owner of these assets in the U.S. and most commonly found in the energy midstream sector. MLPs are tax-advantaged entities that pass through most of their income to investors. The largest MLP by enterprise value is Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE:EPD), while other notable ones include Magellan Midstream Partners (NYSE:MMP) and MPLX (NYSE:MPLX). 

• [By Shane Hupp]

  Magellan Midstream Partners, L.P. (NYSE:MMP) has been given an average rating of “Hold” by the seventeen brokerages that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $74.46.

• [By Max Byerly]

  Magellan Midstream Partners (NYSE: MMP) and Noble Midstream Partners (NYSE:NBLX) are both oils/energy companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, dividends, profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations and earnings.

• [By Lisa Levin] Gainers McDermott International, Inc. (NYSE: MDR) rose 19 percent to $7.20 in pre-market trading. Subsea 7 S.A. confirmed a $7.00 per share proposal to acquire McDermott. Clarus Corporation (NASDAQ: CLAR) rose 18.5 percent to $8.00 in pre-market trading. Enbridge Inc. (NYSE: ENB) rose 9.3 percent to $34.09 in pre-market trading after falling 2.41 percent on Friday. Lannett Company, Inc. (NYSE: LCI) rose 8.4 percent to $18 in pre-market trading. Lannett named Maureen M. Cavanaugh as senior vice president and chief commercial operations officer. Navios Maritime Midstream Partners L.P. (NYSE: NAP) rose 7.1 percent to $4.55 in pre-market trading after gaining 11.26 percent on Friday. Corcept Therapeutics Incorporated (NASDAQ: CORT) rose 6.9 percent to $18.80 in pre-market trading after falling 3.19 percent on Friday. Helios and Matheson Analytics Inc. (NASDAQ: HMNY) rose 5.7 percent to $2.40 in pre-market trading after falling 10.98 percent on Friday. Vectren Corporation (NYSE: VVC) shares rose 5.6 percent to $69.20 in pre-market trading. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE: CNP) announced plans to acquire Vectren for $72 per share in cash Genprex, Inc. (NASDAQ: GNPX) shares rose 5.2 percent to $4.50 in pre-market trading. Atossa Genetics Inc. (NASDAQ: ATOS) rose 5.1 percent to $3.70 in pre-market trading after declining 19.35 percent on Friday. Sangamo Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: SGMO) shares rose 5 percent to $20 in pre-market trading. Magellan Midstream Partners, L.P. (NYSE: MMP) shares rose 5 percent to $68.41 in pre-market trading. Halozyme Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: HALO) shares rose 4.9 percent to $19.78 in the pre-market trading session.

  Find out what's going on in today's market and bring any questions you have to Benzinga's PreMarket Prep.

• [By Tyler Crowe]

  Oil and gas investors have been through the wringer over the past few years. Even the most stable investments in this industry -- pipelines, processing, and logistics -- haven't been spared. Case in point: Shares of Magellan Midstream Partners (NYSE:MMP) have declined 18% over the past three years despite the company posting consistent revenue and cash flow growth. To top it off, there has been a slew of regulatory and tax changes in recent months that will have a significant impact on this particular industry.

Best Oil Stocks To Watch Right Now: Encana Corporation(ECA)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lee Jackson]

  This stock has pulled back sharply and is offering an outstanding entry point. Encana Corp. (NYSE: ECA) is an energy producer focused on developing its multibasin portfolio of natural gas, oil and natural gas liquids (NGLs) producing plays. Its operations also include the marketing of natural gas, oil and NGLs. All of its reserves and production are located in North America.

• [By Matthew DiLallo]

  Canada's Montney Shale doesn't currently capture investors' attention like the Permian Basin. However, that doesn't mean it's a second-tier play. Quite the contrary since, like the Permian, it's a resource-rich region with as many as six drillable formations that produce highly economic liquids-rich natural gas. Because of those features, it has become an important growth driver for companies like Encana (NYSE:ECA).

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  Encana Corp. (NYSE: ECA) may be one of the most undervalued companies in the energy patch. The Canadian energy player was given upside of almost 60% in a call from Merrill Lynch that noted the innovative shale leader has an infrastructure advantage and rising free cash flow.