Contract drilling services provider Helmerich & Payne, Inc. (HP) reported solid fourth quarter results, buoyed by improving rig counts on the back of rebounding commodity prices. Earnings per share, excluding gains from non-operating items, came in at 47 cents, marginally better than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 44 cents.   However, as has been the case with the other contract drillers that have already reported – Patterson-UTI Inc. (PTEN) and Nabors Industries (NBR) – earnings and revenue comparisons with the year-earlier period were quite ugly, severely hampered by lower rig utilization (especially in the U.S. land drilling market) amid weak demand for drilling services. Helmerich & Payne’s adjusted earnings per share slumped approximately 58.4%, while revenues declined 38.0% to $362.2 million.   U.S. Land Operations During the quarter, operating revenues totaled $269.1 million (74% of total revenue), down 38.5% year-over-year. Average rig revenue per operating day ...

Can USCF's new fund tackle the natural gas contango?

United States Commodity Funds' new ETF, the U.S. 12-Month Natural Gas Fund (NYSEArca: UNL), began trading yesterday, offering investors another easy access point to the natural gas market. But let's hope it sees smoother sailing than its controversial cousin, the U.S. Natural Gas Fund (NYSEArca: UNG).

Not only have regulators vociferously blamed UNG for distorting the commodity markets earlier this year, the fund has also performed dismally to date, dropping a whopping 61.24 percent since the beginning of the year. And it's not because investors have lost their taste for the fund: Last month, UNG still saw brisk inflows of $308 million, even as its net assets dropped $263 million.

Record-low natural gas prices have played their part in slashing UNG's returns, of course, but the big anvil weighing the fund down is the market's nasty

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 9, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Avnet, Inc. (AVT), Arrow Electronics (ARW), VeriSign, Inc. (VRSN), Patterson-UTI Inc. (PTEN) and Nabors Industries (NBR).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Friday’s Analyst Blog:

Avnet Tops Estimates

Avnet, Inc. (AVT) recently reported revenues of $4.36 billion for the first quarter of fiscal 2010, down 3.1% from a year ago. Excluding the negative impact of foreign currency exchange rates, revenues declined 0.6%.

Management stated that the impact of global slowdown led to

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Patterson-UTI Inc. (PTEN) reported a narrower-than-expected third-quarter loss of 12 cents per share, reflecting a recovery in rig demand as customers prepare for ramped up drilling activities in 2010. The Zacks Consensus Estimate was pegged at a loss of 16 cents per share.  In the year-ago period, the company earned 69 cents per share. Revenue was down 71.1% year over year to $176.2 million. The negative comparisons compared to the year-ago period reflect lower drilling activity. The number of rigs operating during the quarter averaged 73 (70 located in the U.S. and 3 in Canada), compared to 276 average rigs operating in the third quarter of 2008. However, it was up from 63 rigs operating in the June quarter.  Contract Drilling  Contract Drilling revenue totaled $112.3 million (64% of total revenue), down approximately 77.5% year-over-year. Average revenue per operating day was $16,800, down 5.5% sequentially, while ...

Luke Harding has two pieces on Russian climate change in today's Guardian: an audio report on Northern-Siberia's seasonal shifts, and a special report on the Yamal peninsula.  Rumors abound that China, Japan, Russia and France have been in secret talks on using an alternative to the dollar for oil trading, but OPEC's Secretary General says that, even if there were to be a shift, it would be a long process, and that 'tradition' would make it difficult.  Serbian oil monopoly NIS, majority owned by Gazprom Neft, has signed a $100 million loan with Bank of Moscow on the back of Medvedev's Belgrade visit.  Italy, Russia, and Turkey, have signed a joint statement on the construction of the Samsun-Ceyhan oil pipeline linking Turkey's Black Sea coast and Mediterranean coast (the New York Times has a special report today ...

  In its weekly release on Friday, Baker Hughes Inc. (BHI) reported a slight dip in the number of rigs searching for oil and gas in the U.S., as producers restricted their drilling activities in response to the current supply overhang in the natural gas market. The number of units exploring and producing in the U.S. fell to 1,040 for the week ended October 16 (as clear from the first chart below from Baker Hughes). This is down by 1 from the previous week’s tally and is the first decline in 5 weeks. The combined oil and gas rig count is down by 936 from the year-ago period. It rose to a 22-year high in 2008, peaking at 2,031 in the weeks ended August 29 and September 12. The number of natural gas rigs drilling in the U.S. decreased by 5 to ...

Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has said that some countries have offered to provide Iran with uranium enriched to 20% for peaceful use as nuclear reactor fuel.  In a move to decrease energy consumption, Russia plans to ban the production and sale of all kinds of incandescent light bulb from January 1, 2014.  Gazprom hopes to take a 10% share of the US natural gas market within five years.  The company's deputy CEO, Alexander Lebedev, has apparently also said that it plans to gain a 25% share of the global market by 2020.  Bloomberg reports that the gas giant is in talks with Petroleo Brasileiro SA on joint operations.  Lukoil has said that it has no corroboration of reports that its partner, ConocoPhillips, may halve its stake in the Russian company.  Russia and Bolivia may establish ...

One Natural Gas Company Worth Looking Into… Now And Later

Tony Daltorio, Investment U Research

These days, the US natural gas market finds itself weighted down by doom and gloom.

With North America choking on the stuff and underground storage of natural gas potentially approaching 4 trillion cubic feet, pundits keep saying that the market will see prices plunge to $2 per million BTU, where it will stay for years.

To contrarian investors such as myself, that type of talk couldn’t sound any more sweet…

Despite the gloom, we can still see a few glimmers of light in the natural gas market, such as drilling grinding to a multi-year low, barely a year after reaching its all-time high. Or the fact that some producers have voluntarily reduced output, deeming the present value of gas in the ground superior to current prices.

One way or another,

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Interesting piece here from Transitions Online about the ERBD loan to Ukraine to help them pay their bill to Gazprom ... however this money will only come at the price of Kiev incorporating urgent economic and political reforms.Backed by the EU, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and other international banks have laid out an approximately $1.7 billion aid package to help Ukraine pay for gas supplies during a recession that saw its GDP fall 18 percent last quarter year-on-year, and reform its domestic natural gas market to prevent future crises. Despite media reports to the contrary, this is not a done deal. Kyiv must implement preliminary reforms before receiving any money. Because many of these will be politically unpopular and Ukraine will hold presidential elections in January, the lenders are reticent. But if the country's famously incompetent leadership can shape up long enough ...

Sponsors of the United States Natural Gas Fund (NYSEArca: UNG) took baby steps toward restoring the fund’s ability to issue new shares yesterday.

 

Sponsors of the United States Natural Gas Fund (NYSEArca: UNG) took baby steps toward restoring the fund’s ability to issue new shares yesterday.

UNG is an exchange-traded fund that invests in the natural gas futures market. The fund stopped issuing new shares on Aug. 12, citing regulatory uncertainty in the commodities marketplace. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is investigating the role of ETFs in the commodities market and is expected to announce strict position limits for such funds. Many expect the $4 billion UNG ETF to exceed the allowable limits, as it controls a significant portion of the front-month natural gas futures market.

Since halting the issuance of new shares, UNG has traded at a sharp premium to its underlying net asset value, as demand for the fund has outstripped

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