Posts for Ticker ‘TOT’

Marathon’s Angola Stake Not Going to China After All (MRO, CEO, SNP, TOT, XOM)

Angola’s state-owned oil company, Sonangol, has exercised its right of first refusal to purchase a 20% stake in block 32 offshore Angola from Marathon Oil Corp. (NYSE:MRO). In July, Marathon announced that it had reached a definitive agreement with China’s CNOOC Ltd. (NYSE:CEO) and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (Sinopec; NYSE:SNP) to sell Marathon’s working interest in block 32 to the two Chinese companies for $1.3 billion. Sonangol’s action pulls an estimated 300 million barrels of reserves out of Chinese hands. Read More »

Refiners’ Second Take: Valero’s Risk of Irreparable Harm (VLO, MRO, HES, TSO, SUN, TOT, VSUNQ)

Refinery ImageValero Energy Corp. (NYSE: VLO) may have caused some irreparable harm to itself and to shareholders this week.  Losing money is just not something that the investing public was ready to stomach.  Dumping news of a large secondary offering right on top of projecting a loss was no different than pouring salt and peroxide on your kid’s cut hand when he wasn’t looking.  This has added pressure on other refiners such as Marathon Oil Corporation (NYSE: MRO), Hess Corporation (NYSE: HES), Tesoro Corporation (NYSE: TSO), and Sunoco Inc. (NYSE: SUN).  Valero has always had what always looked like a dirt cheap price to earnings ratio, and now you know why.  This may have put some serious future questions on the sector, even if much of this news is company-specific.
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Top Analyst Downgrades (ASTI, RATE, CHL, JNPR, MTL, SNP, TOT)

These are the top pre-market analyst downgrades and cautious research calls we have seen from Wall Street early this Tuesday morning:

Ascent Solar (ASTI) Cut to Neutral at Merriman Curhan Ford.
Bankrate (RATE) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.
China Mobile (CHL) Removed from Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs.
Juniper Networks (JNPR) Cut to Neutral at UBS.
Mechel (MTL) Cut to Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.
Sinopec (SNP) Removed from Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs.
Total (TOT) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.

JON C. OGG

French Company Surrenders in Takeover Battle (TOT, SU, PCZ, TCK)

oil-well-image13French supermajor oil company Total SA (NYSE:TOT) has let its offer for Canada’s UTS Energy Corporation expire. Total failed to get tenders for two-thirds of UTS’s shares, and has directed the tender depositary to return all deposited common shares of UTS.
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Saudi Refinery Back on Track (COP, TOT)

Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco and ConocoPhillips Corporation (NYSE:COP) are expected to open the bidding for a Saudi-based refinery in Yanbu by the middle of 2009, according to Reuters. The bidding process was stopped last November in the face of turmoil in the financial markets.  Conoco and Aramco are also looking for ways to lower the cost of the refinery.
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Margin Squeeze & Contract Changes Up & Down Oil Patch? (TOT, BP, RDS-A, E, SLB, HAL)

offshore-rig-pic52Several of the big oil companies are putting the squeeze on oil field services providers to renegotiate contracts and lower costs for drilling services. BP plc (NYSE:BP), Total SA (NYSE:TOT), and Royal Dutch Shell plc (NYSE:RDS-A) are reportedly asking for reductions of as much as 40% from European contractors Technip SA, CGGVeritas, and Saipem SpA, a subsidiary of Italian oil major Eni SpA (NYSE:E).

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Oil Sands Universe Just Got Simpler (SU, PCZ, TOT, ENY)

money-stack-image48Two of the largest players in the Canadian oil sands, Suncor Energy Inc. (NYSE: SU) and Petro-Canada (NYSE:PCZ) announced that Suncor will acquire Petro-Canada in a deal valued at $15.5 billion. Shareholders of Petro-Canada will get 1.28 shares of the new company for each share of Petro-Canada they hold, and Suncor shareholders will get one share for each share of Suncor they hold.

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Analysts Up & Down The Oil Patch (BP, COP, XOM, RDS.A, STO, TOT)

We have actually seen a lot of analyst calls in the oil patch this morning.  Some are conflicting against each other as you will see.

  • BP plc (NYSE: BP) Started as Underweight at Barclays.
  • ConocoPhillips     (NYSE: COP) Raised to Hold at Deutsche Bank.
  • Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) Raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.
  • Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS.A) Started as Underweight at Barclays.
  • StatoilHydro (NYSE: STO) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
  • Total S.A. (NYSE: TOT) Started as Overweight at Barclays.

Jon C. Ogg
February 23, 2009

Top Pre-Market Analyst Upgrades (CAVM, COST, EVVV, MET, SE, TOT)

Money_stack_picThese are some of the top pre-market analyst upgrades and downgrades we are seeing from Wall Street this Friday morning with more than two hours until the open:

  • Cavium Networks (CAVM) Started as Buy at Piper Jaffray.
  • CostCo Wholesale (COST) Raised to Buy at UBS.
  • EV3 (EVVV) Started as Overweight at Thomas Weisel.
  • MetLife (MET) Raised to Buy at B of A Merrill Lynch.
  • Spectra Energy (SE) Raised to Hold from Underperform at Jefferies.
  • Total S.A. (TOT) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.

Jon C. Ogg
February 6, 2009

Top Pre-Market Analyst Upgrades (GSK, JPM, LEAP, MS, NLS, PSO, PETM, TOT)

Money_stack_picThese are some of the top pre-market analyst upgrades we have seen early this Monday morning with more than two and a half hours to the market open:

  • GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Started as Buy at Jefferies.
  • JPMorgan Chase (JPM) Started as Buy at Goldman Sachs.
  • Leap Wireless (LEAP) Raised to Outperform at Baird.
  • Morgan Stanley (MS) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.
  • Nautilus (NLS) Raised to Neutral at Merriman Curhan Ford.
  • Pearson (PSO) Raised to Neutral at JPMorgan.
  • PETsMART (PETM) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.
  • Total (TOT) Raised to Buy at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Jon C. Ogg
January 26, 2009

Was Chavez Just Joking? (CVX, STO, TOT, BP, COP, XOM)

Judged by the country’s performance in extracting hydrocarbons, Venezuela under President Hugo Chavez has not been a smashing success. Ten years ago, when Chavez first came to power, the country produced about 3.4 million barrels of oil a day. Production currently runs around 2.3 million barrels a day and is still falling.  This decline makes for tough times in Venezuela. The country relies on oil for more than 90% of its export earnings and more than 60% of the government’s budget. That budget also pays for a lot more social programs now than it did ten years ago. In 2007, Venezuela essentially nationalized its oil industry, raisingroyalty payments and, in some cases, expropriating the oil companies’assets.

Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX), StatoilHydro ASA (NYSE:STO),Total S.A. (NYSE:TOT), and BP plc (NYSE:BP) retained minority ownershipof their assets. ConocoPhillips Corporation(NYSE:COP) wrote off morethan $4.5 billion in assets and pulled out. Exxon Mobil Corporation(NYSE:XOM) decided to fight, and about $13 billion in assets is atstill at stake, with Exxon winning the original case, but losing anappeal last year.

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Nexen: Another Foray from France (NXY, TOT)

Oil_sands_imageThe FT reported that Canadian oil company Nexen (NYSE:NXY) is being courted by France’s Total SA (NYSE:TOT). Total could be preparing a bid for as much as $16 billion for the Canadian company. Total will apparently not make a hostile bid, so it will have to depend on sweet talk and cash to get the deal done. Nexen has said that should it receive a bid from Total, the company would go up for auction to the highest bidder.

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Low Oil Toll: Conoco Delays Saudi Refinery (COP, TOT, CVX)

Oil_refinery_imageAbout two and a half years ago when crude oil prices were heading up at a pace never before seen, the Saudi Arabian oil minister claimed that there was plenty of oil, but not enough refining capacity. To show their good faith, the Saudis would help build two refineries in Saudi Arabia with a total refining capacity of 1 million barrels per day.  The Saudis partnered with ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) to build a 400,000b/d refinery and with Total (NYSE:TOT) for a 600,000 b/d refinery atYanbu.

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Caspian Crude Barely Flowing (BP, CVX, STO, E, TOT, COP, HES)

Oil_gas_pipeline_picOil is trading sharply higher this morning, partly because of oil pipeline and delivery disruptions. Platts reported that crude oil flows through the BTC pipeline have dropped from about 800,000 b/d to 250,000-280,000 b/d. The cause of the reduced flows is the shut-in of about 60% of production in a field operated by BP plc (NYSE:BP). The shut-ins followed the appearance of gas bubbles in the sea around one of the platforms.

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Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Calls (ABB, AMLN, ARNA, BP, EFII, MET, NVDA, LSI, NETL, XLNX, STO, TOT, WFC)

These are not the only impact analyst calls this morning, but these are the top calls that 247WallSt.com is focusing on:

  • ABB Ltd. (NYSE: ABB) downgraded to SELL from Hold at Citigroup.
  • Amylin Pharma (NASDAQ:AMLN) started as Outperform at Robert Baird.
  • Arena Pharamaceuticals (NASDAQ:ARNA) raised to Buy from Neutral at Banc of America.
  • BP plc (NYSE: BP) downgraded to Underweight from Equal Weight at Lehman Brothers.
  • Electronics for Imaging (NASDAQ:EFII) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Banc of America.
  • Metlife (NYSE: MET) raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Bernstein.
  • NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA), LSI (NYSE: LSI), NetLogic (NASDAQ:NETL) and Xilinx (NASDAQ:XLNX) all downgraded to HOLD from Buy at Deutsche Bank.
  • StatoilHydro (NYSE: STO) raised to Outperform from neutral at Credit Suisse.
  • Total SA (NYSE: TOT) downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Credits Suisse.
  • Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) downgraded to Underperform from Market Perform at FBR.

Jon C. Ogg
January 15, 2008

Backward & Forward, Cramer In 2007 To 2008

2007 was one volatile year and for now it appears that will be the norm for at least the start of 2008.  Everyone’s favorite market pundit or least liked pundit is obviously Jim Cramer.  If you love Cramer or can’t stand him it really doesn’t matter.  He signed a new multi-year deal with CNBC recently.  Here are some of his major calls this year that will still be referred to in 2008:

Here were Cramer’s TOP 9 STOCKS FOR 2007, with a call broken down for each one.  Borat would say HI FIVE on some and NOT SO NICE on others, as would be expected.  Cramer’s 14,582 year-end DJIA target…..Friday’s close was 13,365.87……although we did hit 14,279.96 on OCT11, 2007.  Cramer also gave a batch of price targets on most of theDJIA components:

Cramer’s Stock Picks FOR 5-YEARS OUT:

SOME LISTS: His list of recession proof stocks compared to ours.  We are updating our
Defensive Stocks For The First Half Of 2008" currently.  Cramer gave a huge list of companies he expects to benefit from the alternative energy traders (SGR, FWLT, BWA, OMG, FSLR, FTEK, WFR, TTEK, ZOLT, BP, SPWR, CY, CPST, ITRI)… Jim Cramer pondered which US companies China would want to acquire, about 3 months before sovereign funds started buying into US companies.  Cramer’s mortgage winners and losers…… Here were his MAJOR BULL MARKET STOCK PICKS(MHS, CVS, AGN, CELG, GENZ, CEPH, RIG, HAL, EMR, CAT, CMI, UTX, KO,PEP, CL, GS, SKS, VFC, UNP, CSX, BA), some of which are DJIAcomponents.  Cramer produced a "MUST OWN" list of stocks, many of whichare up significantly and some are down (WHR, BDK, ATI, BGC, HON, ASD, JCI, MDR, FWLT, CAT, TEX, DE, QCOM)

Cramer spent lots of time on International stocks that most US investors might not cover on their own.  He made a big call on Mercadolibre (MELI) (also BIDU, GOOG) with some emphasis on buying immediately, right before it made a huge run up.  Cramer’s Hidden Video Game Investment Perfect World (PWRD, ATVI, ERTS, VIA) was one he said could run more than 50% for 2008.  Cramer made 5 TOP CHINESE PICKS (CEO, CHL, SSW, FMCN, BIDU, GMR).  We’ll see in 2008 if any of his Canadian OIL TRUSTS get acquired in 2008 (BTE, CNE, PGH, PVX, PWE, AAV, GDI).  Cramer also went over his top picks from Europe for American investors (TOT, SI, ABB, PHG, BF)

ON TECHNOLOGY:  Cramer’s NEW HORSEMEN OF TECH…. will the list change in 2008???  Did Cramer Say $1,000.00 on Google, Or Is It $600.00? That was in May 2007.  Cramer Gave Monster Price targets to Baidu.com (BIDU, GOOG).. will these targets change in 2008? Cramer was very positive on all the GPS stocks,although we’d expect that Cramer will change his tune in 2008 now thatthe holiday madness is behind us (GRMN, UA, CROX, NVT, TRMB, SIRF).

Would it be fair not to include the Barron’s attack on Cramer from summer for those of you that criticize his every word?

ON WARREN BUFFETT…. Cramer noted that BROOKFIELD ASSET MANAGEMENT in Canada may be the next Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK/A) NYSE: BAM). Cramer reviewed 10 Warren Buffett stocks for analysis and then reviewed 10 More Warren Buffett stocks:

Will his buyout of ALCOA (AA) prediction come true in 2008??? Cramer gave a list of stocks that had bought back so much stock that they might be taking themselves private.

Join our free email distribution list for other Cramer calls or for updates we send out regarding IPO’s, spin-offs, restructuring, reorganization, activist investors and more.

Happy New Years from the 247WallSt.com team!

Jon C. Ogg
December 31, 2007

Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Calls (AAI, AMR, BIDU, RATE, FSLR, FWLT, DNA, PCG, TOT, VRTX)

It might not be fair to only break out 10 analyst calls from the myriad of calls out there, because there are dozens to hundreds of changes daily.  Here are the key calls that 24/7 Wall St. is looking at today, besides the Cisco calls:

  • AirTran (AAI) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at UBS.
  • AMR Corp. (AMR) downgraded to Sell from Neutral at UBS.
  • Baidu.com (BIDU) downgraded to Sector Perform from outperform at RBC Capital Markets; stock down 0.5%.
  • Bankrate (RATE) downgraded at both RBC and at CIBC; stock indicated down $2 pre-market.
  • First Solar (FSLR) raised to Outperform at CIBC; stock up 20+% pre-market after earnings.
  • Foster Wheeler (FWLT) raised to Buy at Citigroup; stock up 3% pre-market.
  • Genentech (DNA) added to Goldman Sachs’ Americas Conviction Buy List, but no change to $102 target; stock indicated up almost 1%.
  • PG&E (PCG) raised to Buy at Jefferies.
  • Total SA (TOT) raised to Overweight at J.P.Morgan.
  • Vertex Pharma (VRTX) raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs; stock up 1.3% pre-market.

There are many other analyst calls not mentioned that will be having an impact on share prices, as always.

Jon C. Ogg
November 8, 2007

Cramer’s European Picks (TOT, SI, ABB, PHG, BF)

On tonight’s MAD MONEY on CNBC, Jim Cramer made his final "Investing In Europe" series pick.  He went to France and named Total (NYSE:TOT) as the oil pick as his final pick for the European buy list.  He likes their global footprint and they are looking at more developing country energy plays, but they are going where many American companies cannot get as much done.  He also likes how well they operate even in Russia and Africa.  Their refineries are also being upgraded to process the more sour crude that needs more refining, and this one is cheap compared to some of its US counterparts and is even trading more off its highs.

This series that Cramer did was all full of the big cap stocks in Europe.  What this will prove in the end if these all go up is not so much that these were just incredible stock picks.  It will prove we are in a major bull market and the market is willing to buy big cap stocks again.  You could go make the exact same strategy picks out of Asia and probably come back with the same sort of results.  Interestingly enough, in Cramer’s game plan for next week he ran more of a cautious note and suggested taking at least some profits.  So it doesn’t seem he’s just going to chase winners endlessly.  Cramer made other stock picks from Europe all week in his series, and here they are:

Thursday, he picked BASF (NYSE:BF) out of Germany as a chemical predator.

Wednesday, Cramer picked Siemens (NYSE:SI) as the major conglomerate for Europe that is similar to GE.

Tuesday, Cramer went to Switzerland’s infrastructure pick for the world as ABB Ltd. (NYSE:ABB).

Cramer’s first pick this week was Philips Electronics (NYSE:PHG) out of The Netherlands (NYSE:PHG).

Jon C. Ogg
July 20, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Pre-Market Analyst calls (July 18, 2007)

ACI cut to Hold at Citigroup.
AKAM started as Outperform at FBR.
BAGL started as Outperform at Piper Jaffray.
BTU cut to Hold at Citigroup.
CPB raised to Outperform at Bernstein.
DAC started as Outperform at Credit Suisse.
DSX started as Outperform at Credit Suisse.
DVA cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank.
FBCM started as Buy at Jefferies.
FCL cut to Hold at Citigroup.
IMB cut to Equal Weight at Lehman.
INTC cut to Mkt Perform at JMP Securities.
KEYS cut to Hold at BB&T.
KEYS cut to Mkt Perform at Morgan Keegan.
KND cut to Underperform at Wachovia.
LDK started as Outperform at CIBC.
LLNW started as Hold at Jefferies.
LLNW started as Mkt Perform at Piper jaffray.
MBRX cut to Hold at Jefferies.
OSG started as Outperform at Credit Suisse.
PX started as Outperform at CIBC.
QMAR started as Outperform at Credit Suisse.
RE cut to Peer Perform at Bear Stearns.
RSG cut to Mkt Perform at FBR.
SNDK raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
SNY raised to Overweight at HSBC.
SSW started as neutral at Credit Suisse.
TK started as neutral at Credit Suisse.
TNP started as Outperform at Credit Suisse.
TOT cut to Neutral at JP Morgan.
WLL raised to Buy at KeyBanc/McDonald.

Jon C. Ogg
July 18, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.