Halcon Resources (HK) Stock Is Down Today As Oil Prices Fall

Halcon Resources (HK) is falling Monday as oil prices decline ahead of a potential deal that could end sanctions on Iranian oil exprts.
By Lindsay Ingram ,

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of oil company Halcon Resources (HK) were falling 8.7% to $1.51 Monday as oil prices fell after rebounding late last week.

WTI crude oil for May delivery was down 1.5% to $48.15 a barrel Monday morning, and Brent crude oil for May delivery was down 1.2% to $55.75 a barrel.

Oil prices were falling as six world powers and Iran were discussing a possible deal over Iran's nuclear program that would lead to the end of sanctions on Iranian oil exports, according to Reuters. The countries have until Tuesday to reach an agreement, and it is expected the talks will end with some sort of agreement in place, according to the news service.

"Further downward pressure may come at any time from a nuclear agreement with Iran," Societe General analyst Michael Wittner told Reuters. "If a framework agreement is reached, we would expect an immediate bearish knee-jerk reaction in the markets, with oil prices quickly losing on the order of $5."

TheStreet Ratings team rates HALCON RESOURCES CORP as a Sell with a ratings score of D. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

"We rate HALCON RESOURCES CORP (HK) a SELL. This is driven by a number of negative factors, which we believe should have a greater impact than any strengths, and could make it more difficult for investors to achieve positive results compared to most of the stocks we cover. The company's weaknesses can be seen in multiple areas, such as its generally high debt management risk, weak operating cash flow and generally disappointing historical performance in the stock itself."

Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:

  • The debt-to-equity ratio is very high at 2.11 and currently higher than the industry average, implying increased risk associated with the management of debt levels within the company. Along with the unfavorable debt-to-equity ratio, HK maintains a poor quick ratio of 0.93, which illustrates the inability to avoid short-term cash problems.
  • Net operating cash flow has decreased to $86.04 million or 15.90% when compared to the same quarter last year. In conjunction, when comparing current results to the industry average, HALCON RESOURCES CORP has marginally lower results.
  • HK's stock share price has done very poorly compared to where it was a year ago: Despite any rallies, the net result is that it is down by 52.66%, which is also worse that the performance of the S&P 500 Index. Investors have so far failed to pay much attention to the earnings improvements the company has managed to achieve over the last quarter. Naturally, the overall market trend is bound to be a significant factor. However, in one sense, the stock's sharp decline last year is a positive for future investors, making it cheaper (in proportion to its earnings over the past year) than most other stocks in its industry. But due to other concerns, we feel the stock is still not a good buy right now.
  • HALCON RESOURCES CORP reported significant earnings per share improvement in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. The company has demonstrated a pattern of positive earnings per share growth over the past two years. However, we anticipate underperformance relative to this pattern in the coming year. During the past fiscal year, HALCON RESOURCES CORP turned its bottom line around by earning $0.47 versus -$3.11 in the prior year. For the next year, the market is expecting a contraction of 106.4% in earnings (-$0.03 versus $0.47).
  • Regardless of the drop in revenue, the company managed to outperform against the industry average of 19.9%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues fell by 16.3%. The declining revenue has not hurt the company's bottom line, with increasing earnings per share.
  • You can view the full analysis from the report here: HK Ratings Report
Loading ...