Based on key financial metrics such as the price-to-sales ratio, shareholder yield and the price-earnings ratio, the following 6 stocks made the list for top value stocks in the Oil & Gas - Exploration and Production industry. Those looking for value stocks to add to their portfolio may want to use this list as a starting point for further investment research.

Latest Oil & Gas - Exploration and Production Stock News

Before choosing which top Oil & Gas - Exploration and Production stock to buy, be sure to conduct proper due diligence: analyze various financial metrics and look at historical data, public statements and news coverage.

The outlook for the oil and gas exploration and production sub-industry is mostly favorable for the foreseeable future. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, a major oil shock occurred in 2020. Since then, crude oil prices have begun to recover, currently priced at around $60 per barrel as a result of persistent supply cuts by the OPEC-Plus Consortium. While the demand perspective remains uncertain, from a supply perspective, both OPEC and non-OPEC participants have a conservative production outlook in 2021. The most significant unknown factor is the potential lifting of Iran sanctions by the Biden administration and its impact. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), oil demand is expected to increase by about 5.4 mmb/d, to 96.4 mmb/d in 2021. While this appears to be a strong year-over-year increase, it is well in line with the 2019 demand of around 100 mmb/d, signifying only a 60% recovery from the pandemic. In May 2021, the EIA forecasted WTI crude oil prices as $59 dollars per barrel in 2021 and $57 per barrel in 2022. At these price points, exploration and production operations are expected to generate significant free cashflow.

Why Focus on Undervalued Oil & Gas - Exploration and Production Stocks?

Value investors seek to buy stocks at a discount to their intrinsic value. Long-term returns show that such strategies are advantageous. Value stocks, as a group, tend to outperform growth stocks over extended periods of time. Typically, value investors perform financial analysis of numerous metrics, don’t follow the herd and are long-term investors.

AAII’s A+ Investor Value Grade is derived from a stock’s Value Score. The Value Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of the price-to-sales ratio, price-earnings ratio, enterprise-value-to-EBITDA (EV/EBITDA) ratio, shareholder yield, price-to-book-value ratio and price-to-free-cash-flow ratio. The score is variable, meaning it can consider all six ratios or, should any of the six ratios not be valid, the remaining ratios that are valid. To be assigned a Value Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) ratio and corresponding ranking for at least two of the six valuation ratios.

What Goes Into AAII’s Value Grade?

Stock evaluation requires access to huge amounts of data as well as the knowledge and time to sift through it all, make sense of financial ratios, read income statements and analyze recent stock movement. AAII created A+ Investor, a robust data suite that condenses data research in an actionable and customizable way suitable for investors of all knowledge levels, to help investors with that task.

AAII’s proprietary stock grades come with A+ Investor. These offer intuitive A–F grades for more than just value. It is possible for a stock to appear cheap based on one valuation metric but appear expensive on another. It is also possible for one valuation ratio to be associated with outperforming stocks during certain periods of time but not others. Some stocks may even have null values for certain metrics like the price-earnings ratio or the price-to-book ratio but not others. An example of this would be a company with losses instead of profits or a negative book value because of heavy borrowing. Negative earnings or book value result in non-meaningful ratios that are left blank or null.

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6 Undervalued Oil & Gas - Exploration and Production Stocks

Of course, there are countless value stocks that are worth mentioning, but this is a concise list of the top 6 undervalued stocks in the Oil & Gas - Exploration and Production industry for Wednesday, May 31, 2023. Let’s take a closer look at their individual scores to see how they measure up against each other and the Oil & Gas - Exploration and Production industry median.

The Value Grade is assigned based on how each stock’s composite valuation compares to all other stocks.

The process for assigning grades starts with each variable for a given stock. The percentile rankings for all valid ratios that a stock has are calculated. So, for instance, a stock could have a price-to-book ranking in the 43rd percentile, a price-earnings ranking in the 67th percentile, a price-to-sales ranking in the 23rd percentile, etc. Then, those rankings are averaged for each stock. (A minimum of two valid variables are required, though all six will be used if available.)

Once the average of the individual variables is calculated, that average is ranked against all stocks. Put another way, each stock’s composite valuation is compared to all other stocks. These ranks are then sorted into quintiles from the cheapest 20% (a grade of A) to the most expensive 20% (a grade of F).

As always, we recommend that you conduct proper due diligence and research before investing in any security. We also suggest that investors utilize numerous grades, not just value, when it comes to deciding whether a company is a good fit for their allocation needs.

Chord Energy Corp’s Value Grade

Value Grade:

Chord Energy Corporation is an independent exploration and production company with assets in the North Dakota and Montana regions of the Williston Basin. The Company produces and markets crude oil, natural gas liquids (NGLs) and natural gas. It has approximately 963,009 net leasehold acres in the Williston Basin, of which approximately 99% is held by production. It focuses on the Middle Bakken and Three Forks formations, which are present across a substantial portion of its acreage. It has approximately 3,583 gross (2,742.8 net) operating producing wells, including 2,558.6 net operated producing wells in the Williston Basin. Its working interest for producing wells averaged 46% in total and 77% in the wells it operates. The Company has an average daily production of 119,785 net barrels of oil equivalent per day (Boepd), including average daily production of 171,880 net Boepd with crude oil production of approximately 95,992 barrels of oil per day (Bopd).

Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are value and so on.

Chord Energy Corp has a Value Score of 71, which is considered to be undervalued.

When you look at Chord Energy Corp’s price-to-sales ratio at 1.56 compared to the industry median at 1.54, this company has a higher price relative to revenue compared to its peers. This could make Chord Energy Corp’s stock less attractive for value investors.

Chord Energy Corp’s price-earnings ratio is 3.35 compared to the industry median at 4.50. This means it has a lower share price relative to earnings compared to its peers. This could make Chord Energy Corp more attractive for value investors.

Now, let’s assess Chord Energy Corp’s EV/EBITDA ratio, also known as enterprise multiple. At 2.6, when compared to the industry median of 2.9, the company may be considered undervalued in relation to its peers. Value investors could use the enterprise multiple to identify stocks that are considered overvalued or undervalued relative to their industry.

Shareholder yield is the sum of a stock’s dividend yield (paid over previous 12 months minus special dividends) and the percentage of net share buybacks over the previous 12 months. Chord Energy Corp’s shareholder yield is lower than its industry median ratio of 0.85%. Value investors may look for an attractive shareholder yield because it can be a powerful tool for identifying if the company has a good management team.

As one of the most common value metrics, the price-to-book ratio evaluates a company’s current market price relative to its book value. Chord Energy Corp’s price-to-book ratio is lower than its industry median ratio of 1.32. This could make Chord Energy Corp more attractive to investors looking for a new addition to their portfolio.

Lastly, let’s take a look at Chord Energy Corp’s price-to-free-cash-flow ratio (P/FCF), which can indicate a company’s market value relative to its operating cash flow. Chord Energy Corp’s price-to-free-cash-flow ratio is higher than its industry median ratio of 4.94. This could make Chord Energy Corp less attractive because the higher P/FCF ratio indicates that Chord Energy Corp is undervalued. The P/FCF ratio metric can also be viewed over a long-term time frame to see if the company's cash flow to share price value is generally improving or worsening.

Epsilon Energy Ltd’s Value Grade

Value Grade:

Epsilon Energy Ltd. is an onshore natural gas production and midstream company with a focus on the Marcellus Shale of Pennsylvania. The Company is engaged in the acquisition, development, gathering and production of natural gas and oil reserves. The Company operates through three segments: Upstream, Gathering System, and Corporate. The Upstream segment's activities include acquisition, exploration, development and production of oil and natural gas reserves on properties within the United States. The Gathering System segment partners with two other companies to operate a natural gas gathering system. The Company has natural gas production in the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania, and oil, natural gas liquids and natural gas production in the Anadarko Basin in Oklahoma. The Company's subsidiaries include Epsilon Energy USA Inc., Epsilon Midstream, LLC, Epsilon Operating, LLC, Dewey Energy GP LLC, Dewey Energy Holdings, LLC, and Altolisa Holdings, LLC.

Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are value and so on.

Epsilon Energy Ltd has a Value Score of 93, which is considered to be undervalued.

Epsilon Energy Ltd’s price-earnings ratio is 3.4 compared to the industry median at 4.5. This means that it has a lower price relative to its earnings compared to its peers. This makes Epsilon Energy Ltd more attractive for value investors.

Epsilon Energy Ltd’s price-to-book ratio is higher than its peers. This could make Epsilon Energy Ltd less attractive for value investors when compared to the industry median at 1.32.

You can read more about Epsilon Energy Ltd’s key financial metrics like shareholder yield, price-to-free-cash-flow and EV/EBITDA ratio, or learn more about its Momentum and Growth Grades, by subscribing to A+ Investor.

GeoPark Ltd’s Value Grade

Value Grade:

GeoPark Ltd is a Colombia-based company operating in the energy sector. As an oil and gas explorer, operator and consolidator the Company has assets and growth platforms in Colombia, Ecuador, Chile and Brazil. Working interests from operation in 42 hydrocarbon blocks comprise of natural gas exploration and production (E&P;) and crude oil production on land as well as offshore across over 700,000 acres. The Del Mosquito block in Argentina's Austral basin, and the Cerro Dona Juana and Loma Cortaderal blocks in the Neuquen basin are wholly owned by GeoPark Holdings Limited, while the Fell block in Chile's Magallanes region is 90% owned by the Company, with the remaining interest in associated infrastructure, production facilities, operating licenses and a technical database are held by state oil firm, Enap.

Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are value and so on.

GeoPark Ltd has a Value Score of 89, which is considered to be undervalued.

GeoPark Ltd’s price-earnings ratio is 2.7 compared to the industry median at 4.5. This means that it has a lower price relative to its earnings compared to its peers. This makes GeoPark Ltd more attractive for value investors.

GeoPark Ltd’s price-to-book ratio is lower than its peers. This could make GeoPark Ltd more attractive for value investors when compared to the industry median at 1.32.

You can read more about GeoPark Ltd’s key financial metrics like shareholder yield, price-to-free-cash-flow and EV/EBITDA ratio, or learn more about its Momentum and Growth Grades, by subscribing to A+ Investor.

Gran Tierra Energy Inc’s Value Grade

Value Grade:

Gran Tierra Energy Inc. is a Canada-based independent international energy company. The Company is focused on oil and natural gas exploration and production in Colombia and Ecuador. It is developing its portfolio of assets in Colombia and Ecuador. Its assets in Colombia represents 100% of its production with oil reserves and production mainly located in the Middle Magdalena Valley (MMV) and Putumayo Basin. In MMV, the Company’s field is the Acordionero field, where it produces approximately 17-degree American Petroleum Institute (API) oil, which represented 53% of total Company production. The Putumayo production is approximately 27-degree API for Chaza Block and 18-degree API for Suoriente Block, which represented 37% of total Company production.

Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are value and so on.

Gran Tierra Energy Inc has a Value Score of 99, which is considered to be undervalued.

Gran Tierra Energy Inc’s price-to-book ratio is higher than its peers. This could make Gran Tierra Energy Inc less attractive for value investors when compared to the industry median at 1.32.

You can read more about Gran Tierra Energy Inc’s key financial metrics like shareholder yield, price-to-free-cash-flow and EV/EBITDA ratio, or learn more about its Momentum and Growth Grades, by subscribing to A+ Investor.

Permian Resources Corp’s Value Grade

Value Grade:

Permian Resources Corporation is an independent oil and natural gas company. The Company is focused on the acquisition, optimization and development of crude oil and associated liquids-rich natural gas reserves. The Company?s operations are focused on the core of the Delaware Basin. Its assets are concentrated in Reeves and Ward Counties, Texas and Eddy and Lea Counties, New Mexico, consisting of approximately 180,000 net leasehold acres and 40,000 net royalty acres.

Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are value and so on.

Permian Resources Corp has a Value Score of 88, which is considered to be undervalued.

Permian Resources Corp’s price-earnings ratio is 4.8 compared to the industry median at 4.5. This means that it has a higher price relative to its earnings compared to its peers. This makes Permian Resources Corp less attractive for value investors.

Permian Resources Corp’s price-to-book ratio is higher than its peers. This could make Permian Resources Corp less attractive for value investors when compared to the industry median at 1.32.

You can read more about Permian Resources Corp’s key financial metrics like shareholder yield, price-to-free-cash-flow and EV/EBITDA ratio, or learn more about its Momentum and Growth Grades, by subscribing to A+ Investor.

U.S. Energy Corp.’s Value Grade

Value Grade:

U.S. Energy Corp. is an independent energy company. It is focused on the acquisition and development of oil and natural gas producing properties in the continental United States. Its properties and operations are in the Rockies region (Montana, Wyoming and North Dakota), the Mid-Continent (Oklahoma, Kansas and North and East Texas), West Texas, South Texas and Gulf Coast regions. It participates in oil and natural gas projects as both a non-operating working interest owner through exploration and development agreements with various oil and natural gas exploration and production companies and as an operator. It is also pursuing potential acquisitions of exploration, development and production-stage oil and natural gas properties or companies. It owns working interests in a geographically and geologically diverse portfolio of oil-weighted prospects in varying stages of exploration and development. Its oil and natural gas leases covered over 314,550 gross acres and 170,196 net acres.

Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are value and so on.

U.S. Energy Corp. has a Value Score of 82, which is considered to be undervalued.

U.S. Energy Corp.’s price-earnings ratio is 28.5 compared to the industry median at 4.5. This means that it has a higher price relative to its earnings compared to its peers. This makes U.S. Energy Corp. less attractive for value investors.

U.S. Energy Corp.’s price-to-book ratio is higher than its peers. This could make U.S. Energy Corp. less attractive for value investors when compared to the industry median at 1.32.

You can read more about U.S. Energy Corp.’s key financial metrics like shareholder yield, price-to-free-cash-flow and EV/EBITDA ratio, or learn more about its Momentum and Growth Grades, by subscribing to A+ Investor.

Other Oil & Gas - Exploration and Production Stock Grades

Value is just one of the five Stock Grades included in our A+ Investor service. AAII members can see the top-graded stocks—those with grades of A or B for value, growth, momentum, earnings estimate revisions and quality—on the A+ Stock Grades Screener.

Also, if you want full access to all of AAII’s premium services, you can subscribe to one convenient bundled plan called AAII Platinum where you can try out A+ Investor, AAII Dividend Investing, the Stock Superstars Report, Growth Investing and VMQ Stocks. With the other premium services, you can dive deep into additional metrics, portfolios, commentary and information about Oil & Gas - Exploration and Production stocks as well as other industrys.

Choosing Which of the 6 Best Oil & Gas - Exploration and Production Stocks Is Right for You

Choosing which value stocks to invest in will ultimately depend on your individual goals and allocation; however, comparing similar value stocks in the same industry can help you analyze which might be better investments for you in the long run. So, let’s take a look at the Value Grade for all of our stocks.

• Chord Energy Corp stock has a Value Grade of B.
• Epsilon Energy Ltd stock has a Value Grade of A.
• GeoPark Ltd stock has a Value Grade of A.
• Gran Tierra Energy Inc stock has a Value Grade of A.
• Permian Resources Corp stock has a Value Grade of A.
• U.S. Energy Corp. stock has a Value Grade of A.

Now that you have a bit more background about each of the 6 undervalued stocks in the Oil & Gas - Exploration and Production industry as well as their overall grades, it’s time for you to conduct additional research to see if these could fit your portfolio needs based on your goals and risk tolerance. AAII can help you figure out both and identify which investments align with what works best for you.

We do so through a program of education that teaches you to invest for yourself and become an effective manager of your own wealth—no more relying on others for your financial independence. You can rely on AAII for timeless articles on financial planning and stock-picking, unbiased research and actionable analysis that makes you a better investor.

A+ Investor adds to that qualitative teaching by giving you a powerful data suite that helps you whittle down investment decisions to find stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds that meet your needs.

Additional Resources About Oil & Gas - Exploration and Production Stocks

Want to learn more about Oil & Gas - Exploration and Production stocks to see if they could be the right investment for you? Check out some additional resources and articles to help you on your financial journey.

• 6 Undervalued Oil & Gas - Exploration and Production Stocks for Wednesday, May 31
• Is U.S. Energy Corp. (USEG) a Good Dividend Stock?
• Is VAALCO Energy, Inc. (EGY) a Good Dividend Stock?
• 3 Undervalued Oil & Gas - Exploration and Production Stocks for Tuesday, May 30

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