• 3 minutes e-car sales collapse
  • 6 minutes America Is Exceptional in Its Political Divide
  • 11 minutes Perovskites, a ‘dirt cheap’ alternative to silicon, just got a lot more efficient
  • 12 mins GREEN NEW DEAL = BLIZZARD OF LIES
  • 7 days If hydrogen is the answer, you're asking the wrong question
  • 23 hours How Far Have We Really Gotten With Alternative Energy
  • 11 days Biden's $2 trillion Plan for Insfrastructure and Jobs
Oil Could Rise More than Anyone Expects This Year

Oil Could Rise More than Anyone Expects This Year

Morgan Stanley's Martijn Rats thinks…

Red Sea Disruptions Force Saudi Aramco to Slash Prices

Red Sea Disruptions Force Saudi Aramco to Slash Prices

Asian refiners expected hefty cuts…

Rakesh Upadhyay

Rakesh Upadhyay

Rakesh Upadhyay is a writer for US-based Divergente LLC consulting firm.

More Info

Premium Content

Merrill Lynch Expects A 46% Jump In Oil Prices By June 2017

Permian drillers

Oil has finally found a strong bull in Savita Subramanian, commodity strategist at BofA Merrill Lynch, who believes oil will rally to $54 a barrel by this year-end and continue its march higher to touch $69 a barrel by June of next year.

The commodity team led by Savita has upgraded the energy sector to outperform. The analysts have added Devon Energy to the firm’s US 1 list and raised ratings on four other stocks.

“Oil production continues to fall as global oil & gas investment has been cut by nearly $300bn (41%) and rig counts have dropped by 37% since the 2014 peak. In contrast, low oil prices continue to drive healthy demand growth, putting the oil market on pace to see its biggest supply-demand deficit since 2011,” the report noted.

They estimate the shortfall to last through 2020, if prices remain below $80 a barrel.

The firm has raised the outlook for the energy sector from marketweight to overweight considering the following factors.

1. They have found that historically, the energy sector outperforms the S&P 500 almost every time oil rallies by more than 25%. The only aberration was the massive stock market rally from the lows of 2009.

2. The sector remains out of favor with investors—it’s the fourth most underweighted sector, according to their estimates.

3. The energy stocks makeup less than 7% of the S&P 500, and every time this has happened in the past, the sector beat the market over the next three years.

List of stocks that have been upgraded

1. Marathon Oil Corp. (NYSE: MRO) to a buy from neutral, with a price target of $21, which is higher than the $18 consensus of various analysts. The new target price implies a gain of more than 33% from the current price of $15.7.

2. Noble Corporation PLC (NYSE: NE) from underweight to neutral. However, the target price of the stock is unchanged at $7.5, which is below the consensus target price of $8. The stock closed at $6.39 hitting a new multi-year low.

3. Patterson-UTI Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: PTEN) to neutral from underperform. The new target price on the stock is $22, whereas the consensus target price is also the same. The stock closed at $19.96.

4. Sasol LTD. (NYSE: SSL) to a buy from an earlier rating of neutral. While the consensus target price of the stock is $32.09, the stock closed the day at $27.71.

5. Devon Energy Corp. (NYSE: DVN) makes it to the US 1 list of top ideas for Merrill.

Notwithstanding, the valuations of the energy sector at 40 times its forward price-to-earnings (P/E) is more than double to the S&P 500’s forward P/E of 17, according to Yardeni Research.

Though the Merrill Lynch report agrees that “energy looks expensive on depressed earnings,” they believe that “higher oil prices should drive higher earnings estimates. Investors are still underweight the sector and the sector’s weight in the S&P 500 has fallen to historically bullish levels”.

ADVERTISEMENT

The whole report is based on the assumption that prices will continue to rise from the current levels. These projections are in stark contrast to that of Goldman Sachs, which believes that oil is stuck in a range of $45 to $50 till mid-2017 and Morgan Stanley, which has forecast crude to slip to $35 a barrel and to average only $40 a barrel in the fourth quarter of this year.

The oil market continues to remain volatile with a lot of uncertainties, hence, traders should be careful with any long positions in oil, especially when it is approaching its resistance levels.

By Rakesh Upadhyay for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:


Download The Free Oilprice App Today

Back to homepage





Leave a comment
  • Joe on August 18 2016 said:
    Merrill Lynch vs Morgan Stanley. Fight of the century! Where's Don King when you need him?
  • Kr55 on August 18 2016 said:
    These big banks sure make it hard to guess which have big bets in place on prices going higher or lower.
  • Louisette Lanteigne on August 19 2016 said:
    Oil is in it's dying days right now. So many companies are appearing to have growth when in fact all they're doing is moving funds around to avoid taxes. They are desperate for government investment but taxpayers are getting fed up with loosing money. They are demanding divestment from their unions, pension plans and learning institutions and it's a trend that will only pick up in the days ahead. Can't hide the floods or the droughts happening and with solar panels and wind power dropping in price we know cheaper options exists that actually can help reduce emissions. Oil subsidies really make no sense anymore to support. It's not even an issue of supply or demand anymore. The stone age didn't end because we ran out of rocks. We are simply ready to move on from it.
  • Sachiin Mahajan on August 19 2016 said:
    Oil prices will remain between 40 to 50 $. Politics seems wining over economic and technical fundamentals !
  • jim on August 22 2016 said:
    Yes, Louise!
    By the way, there is a sale on flying carpets at Home Depot, rush out and secure your transportation now
  • Krzysztof on August 24 2016 said:
    Is he betting his own money on it or playing with the nest eggs of some other people?
  • Lola on August 24 2016 said:
    When did Merrill Lynch ever say anything that was worth reading?

Leave a comment




EXXON Mobil -0.35
Open57.81 Trading Vol.6.96M Previous Vol.241.7B
BUY 57.15
Sell 57.00
Oilprice - The No. 1 Source for Oil & Energy News