LOW RISK: HIGH RETURNS?

ConocoPhillips is an American energy exploration and production company which has its headquarters located in Houston, Texas. It was founded in 2002 and had 16,900 employees as of 2012. ConocoPhillips common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker COP.

ConocoPhillips has recently devised a systematic growth plan which is centered on its core competence. It has planned to capitalize on its strength which is its liquid assets and has started a planned divesture of resources from its non-core, high risk assets. It has announced that it was increasing its Eagle Ford resource base nearly 40%, from 1.8 billion to 2.5 billion barrels of oil in place. A changeover in the firm’s concentration to higher margin liquids will prove to be highly beneficial for the company. This is because liquids still provide nearly double the return as compared to other assets. Therefore, the firm will be able to boost its revenues by focusing on an area of low risk.

As a result of its focused strategy, ConocoPhillips’ focus is now on delivering strong results, with a target of double-digit EPS growth along with low-digit production growth in 2014. The firm’s stock charts has since shown an upward trend coupled with an increase in stock price as well. Currently the stock price of ConocoPhillips is $77.64. It was $51.4 in mid-2012. The dividend per share of the company is also steadily improving which is likely to satisfy shareholders.

ConocoPhillips, A Long Journey Of Royalty And Downfall!

ConocoPhillips is a multinational energy corporation in America. Its headquarters are located in Houston, Texas. It is known to be the world’s best production and exploration company and is known for its good links with other companies. The company was founded in 1875 as Continental Oil and Transportation Company. It was earlier an oil, coal and grease company but latter acquired assets and established wide range of petrochemicals as well. On June 26, 1929, Marland Oil the founder of company renamed it as Continental Oil Company.

From the very start, the stock shares of the company were 2,317,266 that were enough for any company to be get noticed. Presently, according to ConocoPhillips stocks the net income of company is $117.144 billion, this is the estimated value for the records of year 2012. For the revenue the estimated value according to ConocoPhillips stock news of year 2012 is $62.004 billion. In time period from 2009 to 2011 $10 billion assets of the company got sold that cast a deep mark on the stock rate of the company. For next two years. In January 2013, ConocoPhillips Company announced that the company is going to sell its Rocky Mountain assets for 1.5 billion U.S. dollar to Danbury Resources.

Apart of its publicity, the company has been raked at 13^th number among U.S. corporate producers of air pollution. The company has been named a defendant and COP stock highlights that it was among the companies that colluded with the Georgian government to approve a $3 billion pipeline so that they can avoid any lawful restriction.

The Silver Lining for ConocoPhillips

A look at ConocoPhillips stock history may not be a favorable sight for prospective investors, especially the lack of stability in the trend over the past six months. A deeper insight however, may work in the favor of COP. Despite facing low gas demand in one of their key markets (Alaska), the company is looking to intensify its business operations there; giving us a glimpse of the confidence the upper brass of ConocoPhillips garners regarding the future. The recent news of the US Department of Energy approving the corporation’s subsidizing request to continue exports of LNG to countries who do not free trade agreements with the US signifies how ConocoPhillips is set to fulfill the local demand. It is then safe to suggest that there would be further strengthening of the trend that grips the ConocoPhillips stock chart in the coming months. A glance would be enough to see that since the 2008 crash, the company’s stock prices have enjoyed only an upward spiral with only a few blips.

ConocoPhillips’s potential stockholders had something positive to look forward to when the company last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30^th. On average, analysts predict that the company will have earnings as much as $6.11 per share for the current fiscal year. Apart from this ConocoPhillips stock will also benefit from the fact that COP is expanding its productive potential, since they have raised estimates on Eagle Ford recoverable resources. Ryan Lance, CEO and chairman for ConocoPhillips added that in the current year the company will be expanding its production and will allocate ninety-five percent of their annualized capital expenses on production. Welcoming news for potential COP shareholders.

COP : Current Position in Terms of Cash is Quite Strong

ConocoPhillips has been performing quite well from last few years. The company increased its earnings from $8.4 billion in fiscal year 2012 to $9.2 billion in fiscal year 2013. Due to higher earnings, the company’s operating cash flow improved for the fiscal year 2013 and COP stocks price surged after the company announced its earnings. Through the operating cash flows that ConocoPhillips generated in fiscal year 2013, is now supporting its capital investments. 

The operating cash flows of the company also helped it to pay dividends to its shareholders. According to analysts, ConocoPhillips current position in terms of cash is quite strong and the dividends that company is paying is also completely safe. As the analysts estimate, the company’s capital expenditure in liquids will increase and reach $16 billion by the end of year 2014. The COP Stocks is currently changing hands at $74 and is expected to increase as the company provides solid earnings for the current quarter.

ConocoPhillips announced 4th Quarter Earnings

ConocoPhillips recently announced its fourth quarter earnings and beat the street estimates. The analysts estimated the company’s earnings per share to be around $1.33 but ConocoPhillips outperformed and provided $1.4 earnings per share. ConocoPhillips beat analyst’s estimation with $0.07 per share for the fourth quarter, and the COP Stocks surged after the earnings were report by the end of January, 2014.  

COP Stocks went up by 19.7% after the announcement were made only the basis of excluding dividends. But if we consider the dividends as well, then the overall gain was 23.83% for the quarter. The over gain of ConocoPhillips beat the S&P 500 for the quarter. S&P 500 index gained around 19.23% during the same time frame in which the ConocoPhillips gained 23.83%. As this point of time, the company’s price to earnings ratio is around 10.88 that are not that much expensive. But the most important thing while buying any stock is the future prospect of the company.