Brigham Exploration (NASDAQ: BEXP) explores for oil and gas across the Anadarko Basin, the Texas Gulf Coast, and West Texas. According to Hoover's, since its founding in 1990, the company has drilled more than 731 wells. Additionally, BEXP was one of the first small independent exploration/production concerns to utilize 3-D seismic imaging technology in its business.

On November 6, BEXP reported third-quarter earnings (before items) of 8 cents per share as revenue jumped 20% to $31.1 million. Analysts were expecting per-share results of 6 cents on $31 million in sales.

Since forming a bottom around the $4.20 level in early August, BEXP has shot solidly higher along the support of its 10-day and 20-day moving averages. This rally has additionally enabled the stock to muscle above its 20-month (200-day) moving average. In fact, the stock ended October above this trendline, the first such monthly close north of this threshold since December 2006.

BEXP has been a solid relative-strength performer as well, from a 20-day, 40-day, and 60-day time span.

Wall Street has not yet explored the bullish side of BEXP, according to the latest analysts' rankings data from Zacks. There is currently just one "strong buy" rating on BEXP, five "holds," and two "sells," one of which is of the "strong" variety. This backdrop means the door is wide open for future upgrades, which could bring positive attention to the shares.

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Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.