24/7 Wall St. » ROYL

24/7 Wall St. Closing Bell (MSFT, GILD, NFLX, AMGN, WYNN, CREE, LDK, CPB, HRL, STP, BRCD, FRO, ALU, GRPN, FMCN, ROYL)

Paul Ausick — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 21:06:52 +0000

Stocks opened a bit lower this morning, but almost immediately turned around without being able to break through the opening numbers. Revised third-quarter US GDP numbers were worse than expected, falling to a revised growth rate of 2%, compared with estimates that the growth rate would remain flat at 2.5%. Commodities, gold, and oil all rose in the morning, but by afternoon sentiment had shifted toward the negative. Gold is down slightly to $1,675.40, and crude oil is up slightly to $97.71/barrel. Even references to more easing from the Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee when it released the minutes of its last meeting didn’t move markets much one way or the other.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA down more than 53 points to 11,493.88 (-0.46%), the NASDAQ fell nearly 2 points (-0.07%) to 2,521.28, and the S&P 500 fell about -0.41% or nearly 5 points to 1,188.05.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) started as ‘hold’ at ThinkEquity. Other ratings actions included Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD) raised to ‘outperform’ at BMO and raised to buy at Citigroup; Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) re-initiated as ‘sell’ with a $60 price target at Canaccord Genuity; Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) cut to ‘market perform’ at BMO; Wynn Resorts Ltd. (NASDAQ: WYNN) cut to ‘neutral’ at Janney Capital; and Cree Inc. (NASDAQ: CREE) maintained as ‘buy’ with $33 target price at Canaccord Genuity.

Here are today’s big post-earnings news reactions with prices during the last half-hour of trading: LDK Solar Co. Inc. (NYSE: LDK) is up nearly 7.5%, at $3.04; Campbell Soup Co. (NYSE: CPB) is down about -5.6%, at $31.74; Hormel Foods Corp. (NYSE: HRL) is a fraction at $28.82; Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. (NYSE: STP) is up more than 17%, at $2.62; and Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: BRCD) is up more than 13%, at $5.08.

Be sure to check our story on the dismal showing of the Chinese solar stocks and then try to figure out why LDK and STP shares are up today. Investors have got to believe the stocks have hit bottom. Perhaps, but LDK is pretty shaky, regardless of investors’ hopes.

Several other standouts from today are as follows…

Frontline Ltd. (NYSE: FRO) is down nearly -41%, at $3.07, after posting a new 52-week low of $2.97 earlier today. The company reported awful earnings and said that it would either need to restructure or go out of business.

Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) is down nearly -15%, at $1.59, a penny more than a new 52-week low set earlier today. The company is dogged by liquidity and cash flow concerns.

Groupon, Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN) is down nearly -13.5%, at $20.40, after posting a new post-IPO low of $20.03 earlier today. Apparently investors have figured out that there are other companies competing hard in the same space and that there are few barriers to keep more competitors out.

Focus Media Holding Ltd. (NASDAQ: FMCN) is up more than 15%, at $17.80. The company was torched yesterday by allegations of mis-statements related its reporting. The CEO disputed yesterday’s allegations in a conference call today, and reiterated the company’s intention to continue buying back shares.

Royale Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: ROYL) is up nearly 12%, at $3.27. The company announced a new gas well flowing at 3 million cubic feet/day and said that it would begin selling the gas within 2 weeks.

Stay tuned for Wednesday. Here’s a list of other noteworthy events scheduled for tomorrow(all times Eastern):

7:00 a.m. – Mortgage Bankers Association purchase applications
8:30 a.m. – Durable goods orders
8:30 a.m. – Initial unemployment benefits claims
9:55 a.m. – Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index
10:30 a.m. – EIA weekly natural gas status report (moved up from Thursday)
11:00 a.m – EIA weekly petroleum status report

Paul Ausick

Filed under: HI/LOW, Market Close Tagged: ALU, AMGN, BRCD, CPB, CREE, FMCN, FRO, GILD, GRPN, HRL, LDK, MSFT, NFLX, ROYL, STP, WYNN

A Takeover in the Oil & Gas Minis (ROYL, ASPN)

247wallst — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 08:19:41 +0000

Now this is how it’s supposed to work. Royale Energy (NASDAQ:ROYL) has initiated an exchange offer for up to 55% of the outstanding shares of an OTC bulletin board energy company called Aspen Energy (OTC.BB:ASPN). There are about 7.26 million shares of Aspen stock outstanding, so Royale is looking to pick up control of the company for about $4 million.

Aspen holds 130,000 barrels of proved crude oil reserves and 2.7million cubic feet of proved natural gas reserves. That’s about 600,000barrels of oil equivalent. Royale is offering $1/share for about halfof that. That’s 300,000 boe for about $13/b.

That’s a good deal for Royale, which has seen it’s share price dropfrom a 52-week high of $14.70 to close yesterday at $2.31, a drop ofnearly 85%.

Paul Ausick
November 21, 2008

Posted in Mergers and Buy Outs, Oil & Gas Tagged: ASPN, ROYL

Royale Discovery Lights Up Interest (ROYL)

247wallst — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 07:26:23 +0000

Royale Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: ROYL) has announced that it discovered natural gas in its Andrus Island East well in the Sacramento Basin of California which was drilled as part of its 2008-A drilling project. While individual finds and individual projects are not major events for larger oil and gas players, this is one very very speculative company with a low market cap and low revenues as you will see below.

After completing and testing the Starkey sand in the Andrus Island Eastwell, it was flowing over 1,000,000 cubic ft. of natural gas per day.The company’s entire revenues in the last quarter were only 4.711million and its market cap even with the pop this morning is barely $30million.

As far as the depths and locations, the company noted that the well wasdrilled to 7,000 ft. and logged pay in two natural gas filled sands inthe Nortinville formation at 3,350 ft. and 3,800 ft. The deeper StarkeyChannel was penetrated at 6,500 ft. and encountered 26 ft. of highporosity and permeable natural gas filled sands.

Shares are indicated up 15% pre-market at $3.61 on the find. So faronly 3,900 shares have traded, but its average daily volume is about330,000. Its 52-week trading range is $2.18 to $14.70.

Jon C. Ogg
October 7, 2008

Posted in Oil & Gas Tagged: ROYL