Gulfport Energy Corporation

In a flashback to 2008, the small exploration energy companies are seeing rising earnings as crude prices jump. Gulfport Energy Corporation (GPOR - Snapshot Report) still has value even though its shares have soared off the March 2009 low. It is trading at 14.7x forward estimates.

Gulfport Energy is an independent oil and natural gas exploration company headquartered in Oklahoma City with exploration properties in the Louisiana Gulf and the Permian Basin in West Texas.

It also is active in the Alberta Oil Sands through a 25% interest in the Grizzly Oil Sands ULC.

Gulfport Energy Surprised 3 out of the Last 4 Quarters

Gulfport last reported earnings on Nov 4, when third quarter results beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by a penny. Earnings per share were 28 cents.

Production of oil and gas rose 27% to 527,010 barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) compared to the year ago quarter and was 13% higher than the second quarter of 2010. Average realized price of Oil Equivalents was $63.14 compared to $53.34 in the third quarter of 2009.

2010 Zacks Consensus Estimate Rises in Last 30 Days

2 estimates have been revised higher for the full year in the last month pushing the Zacks Consensus Estimate up a penny to $1.03 per share. This is earnings growth of 87.6%.

The good times are expected to continue to roll in 2011 with further earnings growth of 76.6%.

The 2011 Zacks Consensus Estimate has jumped to $1.82 from $1.74 in the last month as 2 estimates moved higher in that period.

Gulfport Energy is scheduled to report earnings on Mar 10.

Solid Fundamentals

In addition to an attractive forward P/E, the company also has a stellar 1-year return on equity of 26.4%.

Gulfport is a Zacks #2 Rank (buy) stock.

Shares are now even higher than when I last reviewed the company on Aug 15, 2008, just after crude hit all-time highs.

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Tracey Ryniec is the Value Stock Strategist for Zacks.com. She is also the Editor in charge of the market-beating Zacks Value Trader service. You can follow her at twitter.com/traceyryniec.

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