W&T Offshore Inc. (NYSE: WTI) stock fell -2.15% on Friday to $6.36 against a previous-day closing price of $6.50. With 2.26 million shares changed hands, the volume of the stock remained lighter than its average volume of 2.94 million shares. During the session, the Oil & Gas E&P company that operates in wider Energy sector, reached to the highest price of $6.68 whereas the lowest price it dropped to was $6.33. The 52-week range on WTI shows that it touched its highest point at $9.16 and its lowest point at $3.57 during that stretch. It currently has a 1-year price target of $10.25. Beta for the stock currently stands at 2.02.
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Price Performance and Earnings:
Stock performance is one of the indicators that investors use to determine whether they will profit from a stock. The price performance of WTI was up-trending over the past week, with a rise of 4.09%, but this was up by 9.84% over a month. Three-month performance dropped to -20.20% while six-month performance rose 34.18%. The stock gained 50.35% in the past year, while it has gained 13.98% so far this year. A look at the trailing 12-month EPS for WTI yields 1.64 with Next year EPS estimates of 1.51. For the next quarter, that number is 0.06. This implies an EPS growth rate of -210.50% for this year and 11.85% for next year.
Float and Shares Shorts:
At present, 143.12 million WTI shares are outstanding with a float of 93.99 million shares on hand for trading. On Oct 13, 2022, short shares totaled 14.86 million, which was 10.38% higher than short shares on Sep 14, 2022. In addition to Mr. Tracy W. Krohn as the firm’s Founder, Chairman, CEO & Pres, Ms. Janet Yang serves as its Exec. VP & CFO.
Institutional Ownership:
Through their ownership of 52.92% of WTI’s outstanding shares, institutional investors have majority control over the company. Other institutions hold 36.57% of WTI, in contrast to 27.65% held by mutual funds. Shares owned by individuals account for 23.66%. As the largest shareholder in WTI with 7.02% of the stake, SSgA Funds Management, Inc. holds 10,046,085 shares worth 10,046,085. A second-largest stockholder of WTI, The Vanguard Group, Inc., holds 8,397,457 shares, controlling over 5.87% of the firm’s shares. KGH Ltd. is the third largest shareholder in WTI, holding 5,835,797 shares or 4.08% stake. With a 6.87% stake in WTI, the SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & is the largest stakeholder. A total of 9,830,397 shares are owned by the mutual fund manager. The Vanguard Total Stock Market Index, which owns about 1.94% of WTI stock, is the second-largest Mutual Fund holder. It holds 2,772,648 shares valued at 15.47 million. iShares Russell 2000 ETF holds 1.48% of the stake in WTI, owning 2,117,672 shares worth 11.82 million.
Analysts Ratings:
Reading analyst opinions is an effective way to decide where to invest, and there are several opinions available for WTI since 2 analysts follow the stock currently. There are 2 analysts who recommend BUY ratings, while 0 suggest SELL ratings. Of the remaining analysts, 0 believe that the stock is worth HOLDING, 0 give it an OVERWEIGHT rating, and 0 thinks that it’s UNDERWEIGHT. In the same way, a target price assigned to a stock can also reveal much about its potential. With WTI analysts setting a high price target of $11.50 and a low target of $9.00, the average target price over the next 12 months is $10.25. Based on these targets, WTI could surge 80.82% to reach the target high and rise by 41.51% to reach the target low. Reaching the average price target will result in a growth of 61.16% from current levels.
EPS: Estimates vs Actual
It is also common to use earnings estimates to evaluate a firm’s growth potential and to determine trading strategy. WTI will report FY 2022 earnings on 03/06/2024. Analysts have provided yearly estimates in a range of $1.92 being high and $1.35 being low. For WTI, this leads to a yearly average estimate of $1.64. The earnings surprise of a firm occurs when the actual results change from the consensus earnings estimate. W&T Offshore Inc. surprised analysts by $0.05 when it reported $0.33 EPS against a consensus estimate of $0.28. The surprise factor in the prior quarter was $0.95. Based on analyst estimates, the high estimate for the next quarter is $0.06 and the low estimate is $0.06. The average estimate for the next quarter is thus $0.06.
Summary of Insider Activity:
Insiders traded WTI stock several times over the past three months with 9 Buys and 9 Sells. In these transactions, 221,853 shares were bought while 68,648 shares were sold. The number of buy transactions has increased to 12 while that of sell transactions has risen to 10 over the past year. The total number of shares bought during that period was 264,279 while 185,059 shares were sold.
