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4 Reasons to Add Unit Corporation (UNT) to Your Portfolio

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Earnings estimates for Unit Corporation have been revised upward over the past 60 days, reflecting analyst’s confidence in the stock. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2018 and 2019 earnings has moved 14.7% and 25.3% north to 86 cents and $1.09 per share, respectively.

Also, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings per share reflects a significant year-over-year surge of 59.3%. For 2019, the consensus estimate for EPS is depicting a 27% year-over-year rise.

Unit Corporation is a diversified energy company engaged through its subsidiaries in the exploration and production of oil and natural gas, acquisition of producing oil and natural gas properties, contract drilling of onshore oil and natural gas wells plus the gathering and processing of natural gas.

Let’s focus on the factors that make Unit Corporation an attractive stock to hold on to for greater returns.

Price Appreciation: Shares of Unit Corporation have grown 34% in a year’s time against the industry’s decline of 10.8%. The stock carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).



VGM Score: The stock has a favorable VGM Score of A. Here V stands for Value, G for Growth and M for Momentum with the score being a weighted combination of all three factors. Back tested results show that stocks with an impressive VGM Score of A or B coupled with a bullish Zacks Rank offer the best investment bets.

Earnings Results & Surprise History: The company delivered earnings of 21 cents per share in second-quarter 2018, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 14 cents by 50%. Boasting an encouraging earnings surprise history, the company’s bottom line surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in two of the last four quarters, the average positive surprise being 12.7%.

Capital Spending and Production Outlook: The company is focusing on strengthening and growing its oil and natural gas segment along with contract drilling and midstream segment. It has revised its overall capital expenditure budget to $391 million, a $69-million rise over the prior guided range for 2018.

The company has delivered 10% production growth during the first half of 2018. Total production in the first half came in at approximately 8.4 million barrel of oil equivalent (MMboe) compared with 7.6 MMboe in the same period last year. The company expects to deliver total production in the range of 17.1-17.4 MMboe for 2018, representing 7-9% growth from the production level in 2017. This ramped up output is estimated to be generated from an escalated activity as Unit Corporation is projected to drill approximately 34 net wells that supplements the whole production tally for the current year compared with 26 net wells drilled in 2017.

Other Stocks to Consider

Some other top-ranked stocks from the Zack Oil & Gas Industry are Denbury Resources Inc. , TC PipeLines, LP and WPX Energy, Inc. , each holding a Zacks Rank of 2. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Denbury Resources pulled off an average positive surprise of 162.86% in all the trailing four quarters. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2018 EPS moved 20% north over the past 60 days to 48 cents.

TC PipeLines delivered an average positive surprise of 11.96% in all the last four quarters. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2018 earnings per unit has been revised 7.6% upward over the past 60 days to $3.81.

WPX Energy came up with an average positive surprise of 24.52% in all the preceding four quarters. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2018 EPS has been raised 33.3% over the past 60 days to 20 cents.

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