NaturalGas posts
FeedPosted Sep 9th 2009 8:00AM by Paul Foster (RSS feed)
Filed under: Baxter Intl (BAX), Chesapeake Energy (CHK), Barrick Gold (ABX), Options
Baxter (NYSE: BAX) is hosting an analyst day on September 16. BAX closed at $55.60. BAX September option implied volatility of 22 is near its 26-week average of 32 according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.
Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) closed at $23.09. Natural gas is recently up 1.32% to 2.844 according to Bloomberg. CHK September option implied volatility is at 45, October is at 47; below its 26-week average of 61, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.
Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.
Posted May 4th 2009 1:30PM by Joseph Lazzaro (RSS feed)
Filed under: Stocks to Buy

The U.S. natural gas market has been slumping of late – with prices trading around $3.50 per million BTUs – but don't be fooled: one hot summer and a recovering U.S. economy will turn that sector around in a hurry. And with this in mind,
Chesapeake Energy (NYSE:
CHK) is worth a look.
Chesapeake concentrates on increasing natural gas reserves via acquisition and field development. CHK has proved reserves of 12 trillion cubic feet of natural gas equivalent, mostly in the mid-continent U.S. region.
Continue reading Time to get-ahead-of-the-pack with Chesapeake Energy
Posted Feb 3rd 2009 4:45PM by Sheldon Liber (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings reports, Good news, Anadarko Petroleum (APC), Chasing Value, Oil, Best Stocks for 2009

There has been little to cheer about this earnings season, and even mediocre news has brought hope to some. However, today
Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE:
APC), one of my long time favorites,
has reported that profits rose three-fold to $824 million, or $1.79 a share, versus $264 million, or 56 cents a share, from last year.
This result is in good part due to the sale of a Brazilian oil field and non-cash hedging gains related to derivatives.
Continue reading Chasing Value: Anadarko (APC) Q4 profits triple
Posted Jan 29th 2009 6:00PM by Mitch Tuchman (RSS feed)
Filed under: Mutual funds, ETF Investing, Personal finance, Commodities, Oil

Here's an idea if you are worried about your heating bills this winter. The price of natural gas is crashing. The price decreases last week continued a down trend that's gone on for six months. Why? The economic downturn slows demand for gas and many companies are announcing layoffs and closing plants around the country. Reduced prices for natural gas are also a result of growing capacity in the U.S. because of increases in production at new fields. Natural gas prices are at multi-year lows falling from 65% from more than $13.31 per MMBtu (the way gas is measured) in July 2008 to under $5 -- the lowest since October 13, 2006.
United States Natural Gas (NYSE: UNG) is an exchange-traded fund (
ETF) that reflects the price of natural gas in the United States. UNG attempts to mirror the performance, net expenses, of natural gas at the Henry Hub, Louisiana.
Continue reading ETF Funds: Hedge your home heating bills with UNG
Posted Jan 20th 2009 3:10PM by Brent Archer (RSS feed)
Filed under: Major movement, Options, Technical Analysis, Israel
Noble Energy (NYSE:
NBL -
option chain) shares have risen this higher morning after
the company announced a major natural gas discovery in the Tamar prospect in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Israel. NBL owns a 36% stake in the well, and company CEO Charles Davidson called the find the largest discovery in the company's history.
If you think that the stock won't fall by too much in the coming months, then now could be a good time to look at a bullish hedged trade on NBL.
NBL opened this morning at $50.44. So far today the stock has hit a low of $47.59 and a high of $50.50. As of 12:15, NBL is trading at $49.77, up 2.98 (6.4%). The chart for NBL looks neutral and
S&P gives NBL a 3 STARS (out of 5) hold ranking.
For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a February
bull-put credit spread below the $35 range. A bull-put credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of put options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn't do what you think, but still leverages nice returns. For this particular trade, we will make a 6.4% return in just four weeks as long as NBL is above $35 at February expiration. Noble would have to fall by more than 29% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade
here.
NBL hasn't been below $35 in the past year except for two days in October and has shown support around $41 recently.
Brent Archer is an options analyst and writer at Investors Observer.
DISCLOSURE: Mr. Archer owns and/or controls diversified portfolios of long and short stock and option positions that may include holdings in companies he writes about. At publication time, Brent neither owns nor controls positions in NBL.
Posted Jan 6th 2009 9:55AM by Joseph Lazzaro (RSS feed)
Filed under: International markets, Russia, Middle East, Commodities, Oil

There's nothing like a supply cut and geopolitical tension to put a floor under oil's price.
Oil popped above $50 a barrel Tuesday after Kuwait and Qatar indicated they will implement supply cuts announced last month, and Russia shutoff gas shipments to Europe stemming from its natural gas dispute with Ukraine.
Oil rose $1.66 to $50.47 per barrel.
Natural gas rose 10 cents to $6.18 per million BTUs. The price of oil has risen about $12 in two weeks.
Economist Richard Felson said Tuesday geopolitical tension has re-entered the oil price equation. "Demand is so weak, prices should not be rising. And had they occurred alone, neither the Russian natural gas dispute nor Middle East tension would be enough to increase prices either," Felson said. "But the geopolitical tension combined with OPEC's production cut has been enough to attract oil buyers back to the market."
Continue reading Oil rises above $50 on OPEC cuts, Russian natural gas dispute
Posted Jan 5th 2009 12:00PM by Connie Madon (RSS feed)
Filed under: Products and services, Consumer experience, Personal finance, Oil, Housing
Over the past few months we have seen the price of gas fall from about $4.00 per gallon to under $2.00 per gallon in most locations.
The price of natural gas has also fallen 25% over the same period. Good news for homeowners, right? Wrong. Homeowners who heat with natural gas saw an increase of 5% in their heating bills. Customers are angry and rightly so. Complaints are pouring in to utility providers and regulators. Some homeowners have had to turn down their thermostats to save money.
Now, if you have electric heat, it's even worse. One third of the home owners in the Northeast use electricity to heat their homes. They have seen an increase of 5% blamed primarily on the cost of coal.
Heating oil prices have dropped by 13% but this affects only 7% of home owners.
By the time all these complaints are filed and investigated winter will be over. Meanwhile, a large population of homeowners will have been held hostage by the energy companies.
Posted Dec 29th 2008 1:29PM by Elizabeth Harrow (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings reports, Forecasts, Bad news, Commodities
Piedmont Natural Gas Company, Inc. (NYSE: PNY) is one of the few corporations to report earnings this week -- and, judging by its results, that may be a good thing. PNY reported a widened fourth-quarter loss of $13.2 million, or 18 cents per share, while revenue improved by 12% to $311.8 million. Gross margin for the period contracted from 29.1% to 28.1%.
Ahead of the report, analysts were expecting a more modest quarterly loss of about 13 cents per share, according to Thomson Financial. Piedmont's forecast for the next fiscal year also fell short of Wall Street's expectations; the company backed its fiscal 2009 guidance for earnings of $1.55 to $1.65 per share, compared to analysts' consensus estimate for earnings of $1.66 per share.
Continue reading Piedmont Natural Gas sinks on disappointing earnings, 2009 outlook
Posted Dec 26th 2008 2:30PM by Bryan Perry (RSS feed)
Filed under: Newsletters, Chesapeake Energy (CHK), Stocks to Sell
This oil trade takes the cake.
At the zenith of the speculative bubble in the oil patch -- when crude hit $147 per barrel in July -- you had everyone from T. Boone Pickens to Prince Alaweed touting $200-per-barrel oil by the end of the year.
Crude is now trading around $40 -- down $107 per barrel in less than six months. Unbelievable!
And this latest drop comes after OPEC voted to cut daily production by an eye-popping 4.2 billion barrels per day.
Looks like the world is awash in crude oil.
Needless to say, those euphoric longs in the oil stocks got destroyed. Most energy stocks lost 50% to 70% of their value during the course of the sell-off in crude.
And remember those television commercials with T. Boone and Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) CEO Aubrey McClendon pushing for the expansion of natural gas?
Well, natural gas prices are down 60% from their mid-year highs.
If you put money into T. Boone's Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (NASDAQ: CLNE) as recently as September, when the stock was trading at $20, you now own Mr. Pickens' vision for $5.
Continue reading 2008 Trades Gone Bad #5: The peak oil trade
Posted Dec 15th 2008 2:02PM by Sheldon Liber (RSS feed)
Filed under: Stocks to Buy, Loews Corporation (L), Boardwalk Partners (BWP)

In October
Loews Corp. (NYSE:
L) acquired $490 million on 21.2 million common shares of
Boardwalk Pipeline Partners LP (NYSE:
BWP), which plans to use the proceeds to expand its pipelines.
Loews, which owns stakes in insurance company CNA Financial Corp. as well as oil and gas companies and hotels, paid $23.13 per share, Friday's closing price, was $19.49 so your buying at a discount to the general partner.
Boardwalk said the cost to complete three pipeline projects is estimated at $3.9 billion. It has financed the projects to date with a combination of equity and debt issuance, cash from operations and by borrowing from the partnership's $1 billion revolving credit facility.
Lowes is the largest shareholder with a 70% equity interest. Boardwalk Pipeline Partners is in the business of interstate transportation, gathering, and storage of natural gas. The company operates through two subsidiaries -- Texas Gas Transmission and Gulf South Pipeline Company -- with a combined 13,550 miles of pipeline in 11 states.
Natural gas prices are down significantly, but I think most investors and users of natural gas alike think that is temporary and the price which is cyclical is near a low point and destined to go up. In the mean time BWP is off its 52 week high of $32.25, down in line with the overall market. The difference here is that BWP has almost a 10% yield while trading at a price to book value near 1.0. It seems to me that this stock will reward your patience while they expand the network and later when gas prices rise as expected.
Last weeks gas prices: At the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) The January 2009 contract settled at $5.686 per MMBtu.
Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture and planning firm. He writes the columns Chasing Value and Serious Money. Disclosure: I do not own shares of BWP or L, but I am considering them.
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