Energy

Halcon Becomes the First Successful 'Stocks to Double' of 2014

Earlier in 2014, we at 24/7 Wall St. published a list of nine stocks that could double in 2014. While we have removed two names from the list, Halcon Resources Corp. (NYSE: HK) has now become the first of the nine stocks to double.

Our list was first published on February 1, 2014, and Halcon shares were assigned a $3.50 price for inclusion, as the edits had taken place a couple days before. On January 31, Halcon closed at $3.37 on the day. Regardless of which price should be used now or should have been used at the time, Halcon became the first of these speculative stocks to actually double on June 17, 2014, when the stock peaked above the $7 mark to a 52-week high.

One driving force seems small, but Canaccord Genuity raised its price target on Halcon to $6.00 from $5.50. The analyst there said that its partnership can speed up its Tuscaloosa Marine Shale development.

Other drivers have been post-sale developments after receiving $450 million, a positive earnings bias and analyst calls. Wunderlich maintained its Buy rating back on June 5, but the firm raised its price target to $9 from $7 in the call. That was upside of almost 50% at the time. Zacks Investment Research talked up the company the prior week.

Halcon Resources saw its shares around $6.95 late on Tuesday morning, but the stock hit a 52-week high of $7.10 earlier in the day. Hence the double. We would remind readers that Halcon shares were above $10 briefly back in early 2012.

The company’s consensus price target is still about $1 lower at $6.05, but that $9 price target is the street high.

ALSO READ: 12 Analyst Stock Picks Under $10 With Huge Implied Upside

As a reminder on any pick projected to double: this is not the norm, and therefore is generally going to be a far riskier company than GE, Exxon and others. The flip side is that some of the companies could flop, even in a stable to positive stock market.

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