- Cimarex Energy (XEC -0.7%) is upgraded to Outperform from Neutral with a $60 price target, up from $57, at Credit Suisse, which says double digit oil production growth looks achievable in 2020 and that this year could be setting up as an inflection year for the company.
- Credit Suisse analyst Betty Jiang thinks Cimarex's Permian net completions could increase by more than 30% to nearly 90 net wells this year.
- At the same time, Jiang downgrades Extraction Oil & Gas (XOG -7.4%) to Underperform from Neutral, citing "severe" liquidity concerns with $185M of preferred stock coming due in 2021, which could either increase revolver utilization to potentially 70% or at worst trigger a corporate restructuring.
- XEC's average Sell Side Rating and Seeking Alpha Authors' Rating are both Bullish, while its Quant Rating is Neutral.