Bristow Group Inc. (BRS) has surprised on estimates 3 out of the last 4 quarters by an average of 10.50%. The company is trading at 11.7x forward earnings.

Company Description

Bristow Group is one of the largest providers of helicopter services in the world. Its primary customers are in the offshore energy industry in the North Sea, Nigeria, the Gulf of Mexico, Australia, Brazil, Russia and Trinidad. The company provides transportation, maintenance and search and rescue services.

Bristow Surprised by 39.39%

On Nov 4, Bristow Group reported its fiscal second quarter and surprised on the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 26 cents per share. Earnings per share rose 19.5% to 92 cents from 77 cents in the year ago period. Analysts were expecting just 66 cents.

Revenue was virtually unchanged from the second quarter of 2008 at $291.6 million compared to $291.7 million in 2008.

While the operating

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EOG Resources Inc. (EOG) reported second quarter earnings of 73 cents per share, compared with the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 43 cents per share and a year-ago profit of $2.52 per share. The severe year-over-year downfall in earnings was due to a significant decrease in commodity-price realizations, partially offset by sound domestic volumes. Including one-time items, EOG posted a loss of 7 cents per share versus 71 cents per share in the year-earlier quarter. Production Total volumes during the quarter increased more than 8% year-over-year to 189 billion cubic feet equivalent (Bcfe) or 2,077 million cubic feet equivalent per day (MMcfe/d) (79% natural gas, 21% liquids). Natural gas volumes grew 4% year-over-year, led by an approximately 5% increase in Canadian volumes to 225 MMcf/d and nearly 23% increase in Trinidad volumes to 266 MMcf/d. The U.S. volume was essentially flat year-over-year. The increase in ...

Country classification has gotten really interesting in the past couple of years with the rising interest in emerging and frontier markets. But that's probably just my inner unrepentant nerd talking.

Right now, in the wake of MSCI’s reclassification of Israel as a developed market, I’m working on a rundown of the country classifications of four major index providers: MSCI, Dow Jones, FTSE and Standard & Poor’s.

The evolution of emerging markets (and sometimes devolution of developed markets—see Greece, which could lose developed-market status in the FTSE indexes) is just particularly fascinating to me. Take some of the frontier/emerging markets that the index providers cover at the very bottom rungs of the investability ladder: Latvia? Slovakia? Trinidad & Tobago? Mauritius?

Frankly, I’m dying to know what the investment stories are behind these tiny, tiny markets. And while I believe frontier markets (like, say, Vietnam) offer some awesome investment opportunities, is anyone really itching to

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Axcess International Inc. announced this morning that it has been awarded a competitive procurement worth $3.54 million to provide security infrastructure solutions for the Port at Trinidad’s capital, Port-of-Spain. Once the contract is completed, the comprehensive system will include active RFID, multiple types of sensors and multiple types of scanners to enhance daily security operations.

Although the specific security solutions are confidential, some of the augmented elements include wireless vehicle and visitor tracking; sensors for toxic chemicals, gases and radiation; and scanning for metal objects on personnel and in baggage. Axcess provided a similar solution for Barbados Port Inc. to improve its security when it hosted the Cricket World Cup Games 2007.

“Security has long been our primary objective at the Port,” stated Chris Mendez, CEO of the Port Authority of Trinidad & Tobago. “These systems are critical to providing the necessary advanced security for the Summit Conference and for Port

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United Energy Corporation, a producer of specialty chemicals products used in the oil and gas service industry, today announced that revenues have increased substantially and that the company has simultaneously decreased its operating expenses for the three and nine months ended December 31, 2008.

Revenues for the three months and the nine months ended December 31, 2008 were $343,530 and $941,524, respectively, versus revenues of $103,691 and $493,708 for the three and nine months ended December 31, 2007, an increase of 231.3% and 90.7%, respectively.

Operating expenses for the three months and nine months ended December 31, 2008 declined $199,724 and $562,786, respectively, a decrease of 31.7% and 28.7%, respectively, when compared to the three and nine months ended December 31, 2007.

United Energy also reported a strong increase in sales to its largest customer, Petrobras America Inc. Sales to this company totaled $352,750 for the nine months ended December 31, 2008, as

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EOG Resources, Inc. (EOG) is a major independent oil and gas exploration and production company, with operations in the U.S., Canada, offshore Trinidad, and the U.K. North Sea. The company has historically concentrated on natural gas in preference to exploring for oil.EOG's third-quarter earnings of $588.3 million were up sharply from the year-earlier level, driven by increased volumes and improved commodity-price realizations, partly offset by higher costs. Domestic natural gas production grew 20%, while liquids volumes rose 65% over last year. With robust growth from most of its core areas, EOG remains on track to increase production by 15% this year and approximately 12% in 2009. With $886 million in cash and a net debt to total capitalization ratio of 10%, the company is in a strong financial position to face the current downturn in the energy sector. We maintain our Buy ...

The massive liquidation of equities resumed with a vengeance during Monday trading on the Canadian Markets. For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange lost 5.30%, while the TSX Gold Index fell 6.3% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, dropped 12.78% with the declining issuers swamping the advancers by a 1,008 to 129 margin on big volume of 235 million shares traded.

Potash Corp. (POT) has leverage in higher fertilizer application rates, higher crop plantings, increasing demand for biofuels and rising crop prices. The company is located in low cost areas and its financials are solid. Hence, we rate the stock a Buy with a target price of $250. This is 18.9x our 2008 estimate.

Potash Corporation enjoys significant cost advantage with regard to raw materials. All potash produced by the company in Saskatchewan is in the area, where extensive potash deposits are found. Moreover, the company has lower cost nitrogen operations in Trinidad due to the long-term, lower-cost gas contracts with Natural Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago Limited as well as a proximity to the U.S. market.

In response to the rising prices of potash products, the company has engaged in the expansion and development of projects that will raise annual operational capacity to capture a significant share of the growth

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The world’s largest producer and marketer of methanol, Methanex Corp. (MEOH), is benefiting from improving fundamentals, lower costs and declining average gas costs. New applications for methanol imply strong future growth. It has a strong cash flow that drives dividend increases and stock buybacks. We believe that a revaluation of the stock is warranted and feel the stock should trade at 11.5x 2008 earnings. This implies a $30 target and a Buy rating.

New markets for methanol such as dimethyl ether (DME) and biodiesel offer the potential for growth. Demand growth of 4% should exceed supply growth of 3%. DME could push potential demand growth as high as 10%. Supply growth will be absorbed by demand growth in China. Operating rates are 84% globally now. The company is benefiting from declining average gas costs as well. Each $1/Mcf decline in natural gas is worth $0.80 in EPS.

The methanol industry is

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