NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Memorial Resource Development (MRD) are jumping 6.77% to $14.36 on heavy trading volume early Monday afternoon as Range Resources (RRC) agreed to buy the company in a deal worth about $3.3 billion, excluding debt.

The agreement includes the assumption of $1.1 billion of debt owned by Memorial.

The all-stock deal is valued at $15.75 per share, which represents a 17% premium to Memorial's closing price on Friday.

"This acquisition will give Range strategic positioning in both the Appalachian and Gulf Coast regions, providing greater marketing capabilities and opportunities, with added beneficial exposure to growing natural gas demand," Range CEO Jeff Ventura said in a statement.

The companies expect the deal to close during the second half of the year.

Houston-based Memorial is a natural gas and oil company. Range is headquartered in Fort Worth and is a natural gas, natural gas liquids and oil company.

The deal comes at a time when there are few mergers between energy companies and bankruptcies are increasing, Reuters noted.

About 18.92 million of Memorial's shares were traded so far today vs. its average volume of 2.58 million shares per day.

Shares of Range Resources are tumbling 7.9% to $38.69 on Monday afternoon. Roughly 10.66 million of the company's shares were traded so far today compared to its average volume of 4.62 million shares per day.

Separately, TheStreet Ratings Team has a "Sell" rating with a score of D- on Memorial stock.

The company's weaknesses can be seen in multiple areas, such as its unimpressive growth in net income, generally high debt management risk, generally disappointing historical performance in the stock itself, weak operating cash flow and poor profit margins.

Recently, TheStreet Ratings objectively rated this stock according to its "risk-adjusted" total return prospect over a 12-month investment horizon. Not based on the news in any given day, the rating may differ from Jim Cramer's view or that of this articles's author.

You can view the full analysis from the report here: MRD

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