NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Whiting Petroleum (WLL) - Get Report are extending losses in pre-market trading today, down 20.71% to $30.44, as the company announced yesterday it will sell as much as 35 million shares and raise $1.9 billion in debt to repay all or a portion of the amount outstanding under its credit agreement.

The company was reportedly looking for a buyer but has tapped the capital markets instead and is looking to sell non-core assets.

"We are currently exploring asset sales of non-core properties," the Denver-based company said in a filing today with the SEC. "We are not however pursuing any significant strategic transaction at this time," the company added. 

Whiting Petroleum is an independent oil and gas company engaged in exploration, development, acquisition and production activities in the Rocky Mountains and Permian Basin regions of the U.S.

Insight from TheStreet's Research Team:

The Street's Jim Cramer, Portfolio Manager of Action Alerts PLUS Charitable Trust Portfolio, wrote about the move late yesterday. Here's what he had to say:

You want a buzz kill? How about 35 million shares of Whiting Petroleum (WLL) coming right at you. Here was perhaps the most likely candidate to be acquired in the entire oil patch less than six months ago, and now it is offering this slug of stock to fix the balance sheet and live to fight another day.

The problem is, live for who? Who wants this stock other than a takeout play? It doesn't have the best growth prospects, it has some real high-cost oil wells and it is largely thought to be a so-so operator that paid top dollar for Kodiak -- an astounding $3.8 billion, to create the largest producer in North Dakota's Bakken Formation. Even when things were flying high in oil, nobody was all that interested in Kodiak, and it pulled back from the market after it tried to sell itself.

The whole of Whiting's now worth about $6 billion, and the acreage in the Bakken is considered deeply suspect at $45 oil.

Worse, the hope was that Exxon (XOM) - Get Report was a willing buyer of the company. Now we know the truth: Wall Street's more forgiving than the real buyers, and that's why Whiting's going to be able to stay independent.

I imagine they will price this deal in the hole big-time, allowing you to scalp the deal, but this is a sign that you won't get a lot of takeovers because the companies know they can always raise money in the very forgiving equity market.

-Jim Cramer, 'Who'd Want Whiting Now?' originally published on 3/23/2015 on Realmoney.com.

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TheStreet Ratings team rates WHITING PETROLEUM CORP as a Hold with a ratings score of C. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

"We rate WHITING PETROLEUM CORP (WLL) a HOLD. The primary factors that have impacted our rating are mixed, some indicating strength, some showing weaknesses, with little evidence to justify the expectation of either a positive or negative performance for this stock relative to most other stocks. Among the primary strengths of the company is its expanding profit margins over time. At the same time, however, we also find weaknesses including a generally disappointing performance in the stock itself, feeble growth in the company's earnings per share and deteriorating net income." You can view the full analysis from the report here: WLL Ratings Report