Apache, XTO, CSX Reach 52 Week High

Apache Corp. (APA) is a $36 billion market-cap Houston based energy company that reached a new 52 week high intraday Tuesday and could possibly continue moving higher in the near term. The 12 analysts that cover the stock have raised its current quarter earnings estimates from 2.24 a share 90 days ago to 2.59 today. It has a low 14 price and earnings ratio with very nice 52% revenue growth year over year and 106% earnings growth.

XTO Energy Inc. (XTO) is another Texas based energy company involved in the exploration and development of oil and gas properties domestically. The analyst are not as convinced about XTO’s earnings growth in the quarter as they are about Apache’s, but for the current year, the 30 analysts that cover the stock have increased their expectations from 3.42 a share to 3.59 a share. This stock has a 17 P/E with 33% revenue growth (yoy) and 8% earnings growth.

CSX Corp. (CSX) is a railway company that also reached a new 52 week high intraday Tuesday. This is more of a slow growth industry with current quarter earnings estimates increasing from 0.60 a share 90 days ago to 0.63 a share today. There is a better dividend of 1.20%, compared with 0.5% for Apache and 0.8% for XTO, which adds to the total return of ownership. The P/E is at 17 with quarterly revenue growth of 7.6% and quarterly earnings growth of 5.2%. This stock is a little expensive at this time but the industry has been strong with Warren Buffet purchasing shares of Burlington Northern around $80 according to reports and Carl Icahn purchasing shares of American Railcar (ARII), Greenbrier (GBX) and a 9.5% stake in CSX Corp (CSX).

Disclosure: none

Comments

[mixter]

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[pharma]

Commodity became reserve currencies instead of disgraced US$.

[Jake2]

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[User 158344]

Please re-check Carl Icahn statement. He only owns between 3 &
4....% of CSX but has ok to increase holdings to 8.5% by sec just
last week. I think he is just "now starting" to increase his holdings from 4%.

[StevePatterson]

I almost referenced the CNBC story in the article. The CNBC article has seen been corrected sincle I wrote the my article.

www.cnbc.com/id/233678...

[Breck Ray]

XTO is the best upstream oil and gas company in the business! Its stock has performed better over the last 8 years than its peers and will continue to do so. Bob Simpson is the industry's best CEO. He manages the company to improve shareholder value over the long haul. Each year they make significant purchases which add to their reserve base. More importantly, those purchases are almost always accretive to earnings in the short term and also have significant undeveloped potential. Its no suprise that the company's stock price continues to outperform and is no doubt among the reasons it was selected by the S&P to join its ranks.