Energy Business
Wall Street Flushes Oil and Gas Leaders on Price War and Coronavirus Fallout
March 9, 2020 1:47 pm
Last Updated: March 9, 2020 1:59 pm
SunTrust Robinson Humphrey downgraded more than 25 in its oil exploration and production universe. The firm now sees an oil price collapse as a price war kicked off this weekend as Saudi Arabia responded to Russia after it refused to endorse new production cuts for the OPEC+ group and after it refused to extend the existing oil cuts that end in three weeks, along with continued oil demand destruction due to COVID-19. The firm spoke with oil executives over the weekend and now suggests the E&P players are likely in for a bleak period, if the price war and COVID-19 impact last more than a quarter. The list of downgrades is too large to write out, but these are the tickers: APA, CPE, CDEV, CHK, XEC, CLR, DVN, FANG, ESTE, ERF, EOG, XOG, HPR, MGY, MRO, MTDR, NOG, OXY, OVV, PE, PXD, RTLR, REI, ROSE, VNOM, WLL and WPX. Many of those stocks were down 20% to 30% in early trading. Here is how some of those stocks have performed on Monday:
Even the infrastructure side of the equation was being hammered on Monday as the fallout will have a widespread effect. That sector already had decoupled from the old notion that it was insulated from the effects of lower oil prices. Robert W. Baird downgraded Energy Transfer L.P. (NYSE: ET) to Neutral from Outperform and lowered its target price to $9 from $15. Energy Transfer units were last seen down 21% at $8.04.
Tellurian Inc. (NASDAQ: TELL) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Robert W. Baird, and its target price was slashed to $2 from $5. Tellurian was last seen down over 23% at $0.93 on Monday.
Indications were awful on Monday elsewhere in the master limited partnership and MLP-like infrastructure leaders. Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (NYSE: EPD) closed down 5.3% at $22.42 on Friday and was indicated down 19% at $18.11 on Monday. Enterprise Products Partners would now have a 9.8% indicated dividend yield, if it can be maintained in the quarters ahead. Kinder Morgan Inc. (NYSE: KMI) was down almost 1.9% at $19.33 on Friday but it was trading down over 10% at $17.25 on Monday. Cheniere Energy Inc. (NYSE: LNG) was last seen down over 14% at $38.84, and it has the sole approved LNG export terminal of its kind.
International oil giants were pinched as well. BP PLC (NYSE: BP) American depositary shares were down 4.1% at $31.25 on Friday, but the drop on Monday was almost 19% to $25.50. Total S.A. (NYSE: TOT) fell by 2.8% to $42.31 on Friday, followed by a 16.5% drop to $35.32 late on Monday.
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