- Apache (APA +0.7%) enjoys a pair of brokerage upgrades following its "game-changer" Alpine High discovery, to Overweight from Neutral at Atlantic Equities and to Peer Perform from Underperform at Wolfe Research.
- In upgrading APA and raising its stock price target to $70 from $41, Atlantic says the company has unveiled a "world class resource play" in a previously ignored area of the Texas Permian Basin, where it leased 307K net acres at a "very modest" $1,300/acre.
- The firm also expects upside potential from other sources, pointing out that Alpine High's value could get a boost from longer horizontal well sections and closer well spacing, and that oil-prone areas indicated solid potentials which have yet to be added into APA's resource projections.