Pioneer Natural Resources

Start Looking At Select Commodity Stocks

TheFly blogged to avoid commodity stocks back in the spring. Our timing was quite good. However, a lot of these stocks have corrected significantly and they are beginning to represent good value.

Pioneer Natural Resource (PXD) was mentioned by Archie MacAllaster in this weekend's Barron's Roundtable. Pioneer is the third largest independent oil and gas producer in the U.S. and its stock has come down from a high of $54 to $38 -- a big correction.

According to MacAllaster, Pioneer had forward sold a lot of its output considerably below today's prices. Therefore, as these contracts come off, Pioneer can sell their gas at much high prices and earn greater profits, despite the recent natural gas price pullback. Pioneer's reserves are all domestic, so they will benefit from better prices due to the inevitable decline in U.S. reserves.

Also, Pioneer has shrunk it shares outstanding from 145 million to 125 million and is supposedly on its way to 100 million shares outstanding.

January 22, 2007