Southwestern Energy Company Stock Hold Recommendation Reiterated (SWN)

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Southwestern Energy Company (NYSE:SWN) has been reiterated by TheStreet Ratings as a hold with a ratings score of C. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its good cash flow from operations and expanding profit margins. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including a generally disappointing performance in the stock itself, unimpressive growth in net income and generally poor debt management.

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Highlights from the ratings report include:

• Net operating cash flow has increased to $444.66 million or 12.15% when compared to the same quarter last year. Despite an increase in cash flow, SOUTHWESTERN ENERGY CO's average is still marginally south of the industry average growth rate of 12.33%.
• The gross profit margin for SOUTHWESTERN ENERGY CO is rather high; currently it is at 57.80%. Regardless of SWN's high profit margin, it has managed to decrease from the same period last year. Despite the mixed results of the gross profit margin, SWN's net profit margin of 16.40% compares favorably to the industry average.
• SWN, with its decline in revenue, underperformed when compared the industry average of 12.1%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly dropped by 2.9%. The declining revenue appears to have seeped down to the company's bottom line, decreasing earnings per share.
• The company, on the basis of change in net income from the same quarter one year ago, has significantly underperformed against the S&P 500 and did not exceed that of the Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels industry. The net income has decreased by 21.1% when compared to the same quarter one year ago, dropping from $136.61 million to $107.70 million.
• Looking at the price performance of SWN's shares over the past 12 months, there is not much good news to report: the stock is down 34.37%, and it has underformed the S&P 500 Index. In addition, the company's earnings per share are lower today than the year-earlier quarter. Although its share price is down sharply from a year ago, do not assume that it can now be tagged as cheap and attractive. The reality is that, based on its current price in relation to its earnings, SWN is still more expensive than most of the other companies in its industry.

Southwestern Energy Company, an independent energy company, engages in the exploration, development, and production of natural gas and crude oil in the United States. The company operates through two segments, Exploration and Production, and Midstream Services. The company has a P/E ratio of 18, below the average energy industry P/E ratio of 18.2and above the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7. Southwestern Energy has a market cap of $11.06 billion and is part of the basic materials sector and energy industry. Shares are up 0.1% year to date as of the close of trading on Friday.

You can view the full Southwestern Energy Ratings Report or get investment ideas from our investment research center.

--Written by a member of TheStreet Ratings Staff.

TheStreet ratings do not represent the views of TheStreet's staff or its contributors. Ratings are established by computer based on metrics for performance (which includes growth, stock performance, efficiency and valuation) and risk (volatility and solvency). Companies with poor cash flow or high debt levels tend to earn lower ratings in our model.

 

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