Southwestern Energy (SWN) Stock Slipping as Oil Prices Slump
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Southwestern Energy (SWN) - Get Report are down by 3.18% to $11.88 in midday trading on Friday afternoon, as some energy and related stocks decline along with the price of oil.
The rally in the dollar, spurred by gains in U.S. employment, is pressuring oil prices today, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Southwestern Energy is a natural gas and oil exploration, development and production company based in Houston.
Crude oil (WTI) is lower by 1.70% to $44.43 per barrel this afternoon, and Brent crude is down by 0.94% to $47.53 per barrel, according to the CNBC.com index.
For October, nonfarm payrolls increased by 271,000, the biggest gain since December 2014. The unemployment rate declined to 5%, the lowest level since April 2008.
The jobs data is fueling discussion about the likelihood of the Federal Reserve increasing interest rates in December. The central bank has delayed upping rates until it feels the economy is strong enough.
"This would certainly put a December rate increase at the forefront. That would keep the dollar strong and those who would want to sell oil against dollar strength will do so," Lipow Oil Associates President Andy Lipow told the Journal.
Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates SOUTHWESTERN ENERGY CO as a Sell with a ratings score of D. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:
We rate SOUTHWESTERN ENERGY CO (SWN) a SELL. This is driven by a few notable weaknesses, 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 deteriorating net income, generally high debt management risk, disappointing return on equity, 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 company, on the basis of change in net income from the same quarter one year ago, has significantly underperformed when compared to that of the S&P 500 and the Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels industry. The net income has significantly decreased by 924.2% when compared to the same quarter one year ago, falling from $211.00 million to -$1,739.00 million.
- The debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05 is relatively high when compared with the industry average, suggesting a need for better debt level management. Along with this, the company manages to maintain a quick ratio of 0.47, which clearly demonstrates the inability to cover short-term cash needs.
- Return on equity has greatly decreased when compared to its ROE from the same quarter one year prior. This is a signal of major weakness within the corporation. Compared to other companies in the Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels industry and the overall market, SOUTHWESTERN ENERGY CO's return on equity significantly trails that of both the industry average and the S&P 500.
- Net operating cash flow has significantly decreased to $287.00 million or 50.51% when compared to the same quarter last year. In addition, when comparing the cash generation rate to the industry average, the firm's growth is significantly lower.
- Despite any intermediate fluctuations, we have only bad news to report on this stock's performance over the last year: it has tumbled by 66.22%, worse than the S&P 500's performance. Consistent with the plunge in the stock price, the company's earnings per share are down 870.00% compared to the year-earlier 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.
- You can view the full analysis from the report here: SWN
Any reference to TheStreet Ratings and its underlying recommendation does not reflect the opinion of Jim Cramer, TheStreet or any of its contributors.